Maintenance backlogs at some Illawarra schools would take more than two decades to rectify based on current funding allocations, figures obtained by NSW Labor have revealed.
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The Opposition has used the start of the 2017 school year to slam the government for failing to fix the region’s schools and leaving students “learning in schools which are crumbling around them”.
Figures obtained by Labor under Freedom of Information laws reveal the maintenance backlog at Towradgi Public School, in the Wollongong electorate, would take 22 years to fix – based on the Berejiklian government’s current outlay.
Towradgi Public’s 2016-17 maintenance backlog (based on November 2016 data) was almost $700,000.
The school received just five per cent of that figure in its 2017 funding allocation.
Two Wollongong public schools, Farmborough Road and Warrawong, also face waits of at least 20 years.
“It’s simply not good enough for children in 21st century education to be learning in schools which are crumbling around them,” Member for Wollongong Paul Scully said.
Despite the lengthy wait for work to be completed, Towradgi Public’s repair backlog has improved.
The northern-suburb school’s repair bill at the end of June 2015 was $869,402.
In the Shellharbour electorate, the most-neglected schools (in terms of years required to complete repairs) were Oak Flats High School (18 years) and Warilla’s Peterborough School (16).
Shellharbour MP Anna Watson said 18 schools in her electorate had outstanding maintenance requests.
Ms Watson and Mr Scully have called on the new Education Minister, Rob Stokes, to fix the backlogs as a matter of priority. The Mercury contacted Mr Stokes office for comment, but was provided a response from the Department of Education instead.
A spokesman said the department had a “well-defined maintenance strategy”.
“All statutory and preventive maintenance is completed as a first priority to ensure our schools are safe and compliant,” he said.
“Any maintenance issue that poses a risk to students or staff, or impacts on the quality of education is addressed immediately.
“The backlog maintenance at each school reflects the estimated cost of current and future repair work required to ensure buildings continue to perform at an acceptable level.”
The 2016/17 NSW budget included $330 million over two years to address maintenance backlogs.
The department has more than 2200 schools in its portfolio, the spokesman said, meaning it was “not feasible to have no outstanding maintenance work”.
“Schools will continue to age,” he said.