BY DAKOTA TAIT
Hunter schools are packed to the rafters, with several coming in above appropriate student capacity, according to recent data from the Department of Education.
Data shows Glendore Public School at 156.4% capacity, Jesmond Public School at 125%, New Lambton Public School at 118.5%, and Callaghan College Wallsend at 113%.
Wallsend MP Sonia Hornery says overcrowding in her electorate was putting pressure not only on schools and teachers, but parents, traffic, and transport systems.
"We see the Department just stack more classrooms into school grounds, without any thought to the surrounding infrastructure and the impact that has on local communities," Ms Hornery said.
"We have seen boundary changes to Callaghan College Wallsend, Lambton and New Lambton Public Schools which has done nothing to ease the overcrowding, but has put stress and strain on the local road network as parents are forced to now drive their children to school."
John Black, Country Organiser for the NSW Teachers Federation, says the overcrowding issue is not a surprise.
"We see it every day in every school that we visit, demountables going up and taking up valuable space and nearly every public school in the state is bursting at the seams," Mr Black said.
"This was backed up in an Auditor-General's report saying that public schools would run out of room in the two years."
But Education Minister Sarah Mitchell says the Opposition is misconstruing the data.
"What those numbers are, are basically guidelines to our school principals around the polices that they need to put in place if they're looking at out of area enrolment," Ms Mitchell said.
"Over time we've seen some out of area enrolments creep in, and that puts pressure on existing school infrastructure."
Mr Black said the Government "tinkering with enrolment boundaries" was not good enough.
"We need serious investment to meet community demand," Mr Black said.
"We need to build new schools, build new classrooms, purchase land, look at where development is going and actually have provisional public education and services that meets demand in those areas."
