IN the wake of last week’s education strikes more issues continue to arise in relation to South West schools.
South West MLC Adele Farina said the government had missed an ideal opportunity to address overcrowding in local schools.
“The population of the South West is growing rapidly, so we can expect the number of students attending our schools and the demand for school facilities to increase just as rapidly,” she said.
Ms Farina said that millions of dollars of Royalties for Regions funds were being spent to increase the capacity of regional high schools ahead of the intake of year seven students.
However South West schools would still be reliant on transportable classrooms, she said.
“It is the government’s responsibility to ensure there are adequate facilities to meet the community’s needs,” she said.
Dunsborough Primary School board chair Michael Baldock said if the area continued to grow at the rate it currently was the school would exceed its limit.
“The population is now 759 students and has been growing 9 per cent per year for the last five years,” he said.
“Even with the year 7’s moving to high school in 2014, if this growth continues, we can expect 1000 students at Dunsborough Primary by 2017/2018 which far exceeds the 500 students this site should be accommodating.”
Education minister Peter Collier disagreed with Ms Farina and said South West schools were not overcrowded.
Mr Collier said transportable classrooms had been used for decades as they provide flexibility, offered offer a high standard of accommodation and were equipped to provide a well-resourced education environment.
