Councils across Sydney’s west say some parents are forced to send their children to private schools due to the New South Wales government’s failure to plan for population growth, warning that it is exacerbating educational disadvantage.
In a submission to a looming inquiry into school infrastructure in NSW, the councils – including some in government-held seats – warn that a lack of long-term planning has led to overcrowded classrooms.
They also say parents feel pressured to send their children to private schools or travel out of their area.
The submission comes amid an ongoing debate about a divide in services between western Sydney and the rest of the city, prompted by a report from the Labor-aligned McKell institute, which found the top third of council areas with the best access to public transport were all in the city’s east or north.
The joint submission to the parliamentary inquiry was prepared by eight western Sydney councils, including Penrith, Camden, Wollondilly and Hawkesbury, which are in areas held by the Coalition.
They warned the government has not planned for an “anticipated shortfall of classrooms” in Sydney’s west and accused the state’s education department of “inadequate forecasting for growth”.
The councils used the example of Wollondilly in Sydney’s south-west. In 2018 there were 4,269 high school students in the area, but only one public school and one private high school, with a combined capacity of 2,077 students, they said.
“This means that some 2,000 students leave the shire every day, attending at least 27 different high schools,” they said in the submission.
While the councils described the current situation as “far from ideal”, they warned it would continue to worsen as thousands of new homes were planned for construction.
In the towns of Wilton and Appin, for example, the councils estimate 45,000 new homes could be built in the coming years, based on current re-zoning.
“[T]his will see at least an additional 54,000 people in the Wollondilly area of Greater Macarthur. Schools must be planned now and sequenced according to growth so that the 2,000 [student] deficit does not continue and grow,” they said.
The submission also states that “delays in planning and delivery” of government schools in new development areas is leading to private schools stepping in to “fill the gap”, which“exacerbates disparities within communities”.
It lists a number of examples of recent developments that have seen private schools established well before any public alternative is built. In Oran Park, in Sydney’s south-west, a Catholic school was built eight years before the first local government school opened in 2020.
In the growth area of Schofields, in the north-west, the first Catholic school was built in 1996 – almost two decades before a public school was established in 2015.
“The impact includes affordability of higher cost of school education for families,” the submission states.
“This tendency to rely on the non-government sector in greenfield and brownfield areas to provide education facilities for new communities, puts financial pressure on families who would otherwise send their children to government schools, if they were located nearby, and disadvantages those children who have to travel some distance to attend government schools out of their area.”
Last year, the NSW auditor general found that while the government had increased spending on school infrastructure, the education department had been “focused on delivering existing projects, election commitments and other government announcements”.
That focus had “diverted attention from identifying and delivering projects that would have better met present and future student and classroom needs”.
“While it has developed a long-term strategic plan that advises government of ongoing funding requirements, it has not presented a list of priorities to meet these needs,” the auditor general found.
Education department responds
In a statement, the education department said it “does not agree with aspects of Western Parkland Councils’ assessment”.
“We have acknowledged the challenges of accurately predicting enrolments numbers based solely on planning data,” a spokesperson said. “This is why School Infrastructure is incorporating a greater pool of data sources for improve our understanding of population projections.”
Other submissions to the inquiry also raise concerns about increased overcrowding in schools, including one case where a local parents and citizens association claimed students at one western Sydney have been forced to take classes in hallways.
The Concord High School P&C Association told the inquiry that despite only having an enrolment capacity for between 800 and 900 children, it currently has about 1,300 students.
According to the submission, the school has 18 demountables, including toilet blocks, which have been “thoughtlessly placed and are now taking up space on the school oval”, while some classes were “being delivered in the thoroughfares of the school”.
In February, the state’s opposition revealed data showing dozens of schools were exceeding enrolment caps, including cases where schools built only a few years ago were already exceeding capacity.
The data showed nine of the 10 schools most over capacity were in Sydney’s west.
The department spokesperson said it was “aware of enrolment growth at schools in western Sydney and is continuing to invest in new and upgraded schools to support these communities”.
“Over the next four years, $2bn is being invested in school infrastructure across western Sydney, part of the NSW government’s historic $7.9bn investment.”
