The project evaluation committee and its advisory committees evaluated the proposals in terms of the proponents' demonstrated capacities to meet the following criteria (weighted as shown):
■ DET's educational objectives (15% - changed to 10% for the second contract)
■ the project's financial requirements, including the "value for money" of the proponents' prices and the proponents' financial strength (30%)
■ the project's legal requirements, including compliance with the terms of a draft contract (30%)
■ the project's technical requirements, including the deliverability of the proponents' technical proposals, design excellence, attention to quality and safety issues and compliance with all relevant policies, codes and standards (15% - changed to 20% for the second contract)
■ the project's facilities management requirements (25%).
Of these, the educational objectives proved the least tangible. They included:
■ promote effective learning within quality learning environments
■ provide a well rounded education that values and supports the intellectual, creative, physical, social and emotional development of each child
■ promote lifelong learning.
Specific relationships between school infrastructure and student outcomes are difficult to quantify. Partly because of this, DET set its current school buildings specifications as a minimum requirement.