The money will fund four new classrooms in Otago and Southland and the relocation and rebuild of Wakatipu High School in Queenstown.
The announcement was made this morning in Queenstown, where Associate Minister of Education Nikki Kaye is visiting as part of Winter Festival.
The biggest investment will be $25 million for Wakatipu High School to be relocated to Frankton and rebuilt for a role of 1200 places, increasing the current capacity by 140 places.
Other announcements were:
- Up to $11 million to redevelop Arrowtown Primary School in Central Otago to provide modern learning environments and increase capacity of the school from 520 to 560 (this is on top of the investment that took the capacity of the school from 420 to 520 places since 2012)
- $350,000 for one new classroom at Donovan Primary School in Invercargill (this is in addition to funding already approved for two new classrooms)
- $700,000 for two new classrooms at Mt Aspiring College in Wanaka
- $350,000 for one new classroom at Pembroke School in Oamaru.
The money is part of a $882.5 million investment in education infrastructure announced as part of this year's Budget.
Education Minister Hekia Parata called it a significant investment in schools in Queenstown, Otago and Southland.
"The redevelopment of Arrowtown Primary School will add further capacity to meet higher than expected roll growth, and will also address weathertightness issues that the school is experiencing.
"Seven extra teaching spaces will be built, on top of six new spaces already provided in 2015. In addition to this, four existing blocks will be replaced with a brand new multi-purpose facility comprising eight teaching spaces and an administration centre.
"This is an exciting project for the school and local community, which will be carried out in stages over the next three years to minimise disruption. The design phase will kick off later this year, and I expect construction to begin in 2017."
Ms Kaye said the Government was committed to ensuring that schools in high growth areas had enough space for students to learn effectively.
The master plan for Wakatipu High School, which will be a public private partnership, could accommodate up to 1800 pupils.
"Including the additional spaces provided through previous investment and projects green-lighted so far this year, we will deliver around an additional 2000 student places in the Wakatipu Basin between 2010 and 2019.
"The overall student population in 2010 was around 14,000, and to put this in perspective, the Government has invested to increase the network capacity by 17 per cent from 2010 to 2019.
"The additional classrooms and redevelopment announced today will further boost the quality and capacity of schools in the lower South Island, and ensure students have the best possible education opportunities in innovative and inspiring learning environments."
