Keira High School, Illawarra Sports High School, Figtree High School and Lakelands Public School have so far been granted money for building upgrades, though the government has said more could be added to the list.

The opposition welcomed the announcement, and it was also happy that "people of the margins" gained an extra boost, with $167 million pledged to roll out statewide over four years for student support, especially for the Indigenous and refugees.

Opposition spokesman for the Illawarra Ryan Park welcomed the announcements but said more could be done.

"What I will be looking at is some serious investment in schools in our region. Many of them are in urgent need of an upgrade. What we have are very old schools, but they're also very much exposed to the elements because of where they are.

"I certainly would have liked to have seen more schools funded across the board, given the record amount of stamp duty and revenue this government has received," Mr Park said. "We're also very concerned with the cuts to TAFE, particularly cuts to TAFE staff."

Illawarra TAFE Institute was named as one of seven new projects worth $17 million, with upgrades to ICT and online learning tools at their 14 campuses.

On the flipside, enrolments have been forecast to drop 8 per cent this year, supporting a statewide trend of decline due to funding being slashed.

Parliamentary secretary for the Illawarra and South Coast Gareth Ward said he'd never seen a "brighter" outlook, and dismissed the expected drop in TAFE enrolments.

"Labor were the one that introduced the capacity for the private sector to tender for this work, and since these reforms we're seeing 60,000 more people in vocational education and training against the state and there is an increase in the vocational budget so I don't accept that at all," Mr Ward said.