Even though the State Government says primary schools have
enough room for an expected influx of new pupils, demographers warn an
expansion is desperately needed, especially in some inner-city suburbs.
Australian Bureau of Statistics data shows fertility rates
soared by 25 per cent in Leichhardt and North Sydney
from 2000 to 2005.
Erskineville
Public School is already
drawing up expansion plans because inquiries are being taken from parents
making enrolment requests for 2011.
In 2001, the primary school was earmarked for closure due to
falling enrolments, until a campaign by the community and parents forced the
Government to reverse its decision in 2002.
Principal Gai O’Neill said that, since the reprieve,
enrolments grew from 29 to 215 in 2007. The number of classes would have grown
from three to 11 next year.
Ms O’Neill said expansion was essential after the baby boom
in the area that now resembled a “pram village”.
Ms O’Neill said the school was in discussions with the
Department of Education about its plans for expansion over the next three
years.
“We are having to look at adding classrooms on the
site. There is definitely room for expanding and converting unused spaces into
classrooms.”
KPMG demographer Bernard Salt said schools would need to
expand in the inner suburbs to cater for the baby boom.
But high property prices and lack of spare land might force
schools to give up the traditional single-level schoolhouse surrounded by
asphalt and use multi-storey buildings.
Mr Salt said the baby boom followed years of declining birth
rates. “[The Government] should be reading these trends and establishing
whether they are a flash in the pan or a significant shift,” he said.
“If it is a significant shift, then they need to make
provisions. My personal view is that this is a significant shift.”
The Department of Education said it was monitoring
demographic and enrolment trends and was confident there was ample capacity in
schools.
“A slight increase in birth rates in some areas of the Sydney metropolitan area,
for example the northern beaches, the eastern and inner-western suburbs, has
been recognised,” a department spokesman said.
He said the rise had been factored into the department’s
enrolment trends for 2010 and 2011.
Photo: Danielle Smith – Children at play at Erskineville Public School, which is to make room for
extra pupils.
Source: The Sun-Herald