Keira MP Ryan Park has hit out at the NSW government's "continued refusal" to replace school demountables in his electorate.
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His "disappointment" stems from the fact that the number of demountable classrooms continues to grow in the Keira electorate and the state government has confirmed it has no plans to replace them.
Figures obtained by Mr Park showed in 2017 there were 57 demountable classrooms, 63 in 2018, 71 in 2019 and 74 in 2020.
Mr Park said that it was clear the government only wanted to deal with growing school numbers by installing demountables in local schools rather than building permanent classrooms.
He added it was simply unacceptable for the number of demountables to increase year after year with no plan to build much needed permanent classrooms.
"No one expects zero demountables," Mr Park said. "We understand the role they have in the education system but governments should be working towards building permanent facilities, permanent classroom spaces.
"The demountables are good but they often take up a large amount of space, and that's a real problem."
Mr Park said instead of replacing the demountable classrooms in schools, he was seeing more and more being installed.
"Students in Kindergarten this year will likely go through their entire schooling sitting in demountable classrooms," he said.
"It is not good enough that the government is refusing to invest in local schools by building permanent buildings."
The highest number of demountable classrooms were at Wollongong High School of Performing Arts with 14. Waniora and Woonona public schools had seven demountables each.
The public schools that have five demountables are Austinmer, Corrimal, Thirroul as well as Figtree High.
Bulli, Keiraville, Pleasant Heights and Russell Vale have four each while Balgownie and Lindsay Park have three.
In response to Mr Park's questions on notice, Minister for Education Sarah Mitchell said there were no plans to replace the demountables with permanent classrooms at schools in the Keira electorate.
"Demountable buildings allow the Department of Education to be highly responsive to student enrolment changes and enables the provision of emergency accommodation following fires and natural disasters," Ms Mitchell said.
"All demountable teaching spaces are air-conditioned and regularly maintained.
"Demountables are also used to meet accommodation needs arising from capital works and maintenance projects in schools."
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Agron Latifi
Wollongong born and bred. I love reporting about the Illawarra region and have been doing it for more than 20 years. I've moved into sport recently after covering the education round for the last five plus years for the Illawarra Mercury. It's been a great pleasure.
Wollongong born and bred. I love reporting about the Illawarra region and have been doing it for more than 20 years. I've moved into sport recently after covering the education round for the last five plus years for the Illawarra Mercury. It's been a great pleasure.
