$30m school expansion set for Manukura & Te Wharekura o Ngā Purapura o Te Aroha

<h2>The government is investing &dollar;30m to expand two schools&comma; providing their staff and students with permanent sites to teach and learn from&comma; Associate Education Minister Kelvin Davis announced on Friday&period;<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p>Kelvin Davis visited Manukura&comma; a designated character school in Palmerston North&comma; which will receive &dollar;20 million for a permanent new school&period; Te Wharekura o Ng&amacr; Purapura o Te Aroha will also receive &dollar;10 million&period; The funding was allocated in Budget 2018&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Both schools have been operating from temporary sites&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<blockquote>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;The students who go to these schools are keen to learn and they deserve the best&comma; modern fit-for-purpose learning environments&comma;” Kelvin Davis said&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Lifting achievement of our tamariki and rangatahi is a priority for me as minister&period; Today’s announcement is about ensuring these schools have teaching spaces that support students to succeed&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<blockquote>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;M&amacr;ori medium schools have seen a steady rise in student numbers&comma; and we need to support them to grow and provide quality education&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;<p>The two schools will each be built on new sites&period; Construction on the schools is expected to begin in about 18 months&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<blockquote>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Our investment will see these schools receive the permanent sites they have been waiting for&comma; so they can focus on what they do best – teaching and learning&comma;” Kelvin Davis said&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;<p>This funding is a part of Budget 2018 investment to support schools experiencing roll growth pressures&period; Almost &dollar;70 million to build new schools and add capacity has been announced so far&period; According to the government&comma; further announcements will be made about investments in school property under Budget 2018 in the coming weeks&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;