There are now 161 primary schools with more than 450 students enrolled . Source: News Limited
PRIMARY schools bursting with students are resorting to two-storey classrooms and staggered assemblies to combat overcrowding.
Principals told The Sunday Times the influx of students is forcing them to replace worn-out grass up to three times a year.
As students return to school tomorrow, "frustrated" school leaders warn the explosion in public primary school students must be addressed in the State Budget. Primary schools built in the metropolitan area since 1995 are generally designed to cater for 430 students in permanent accommodation.
New information provided to State Parliament shows there are now 161 primary schools with more than 450 students enrolled in them — up from 139 two years ago.
Canning Vale's Campbell Primary School, Baldivis' Settlers Primary School, Secret Harbour's Comet Bay Primary School, Southern River's Bletchley Park Primary School and Baldivis' Makybe Rise Primary School now have more than 1000 students each.
WA Primary Principals Association president Steve Breen said some inner-city schools were turning to staggered assemblies and adding a second storey to buildings, while others were being forced to replace grass worn out by the "foot traffic" as often as three times in a year.
The increased number of demountable classrooms was cutting into play areas, according to Mr Breen, who also said two-storey toilet blocks would also need to be considered.
Mr Breen said principals are increasingly frustrated.
"Basically, their main job is trying to house kids where their main job should be as educational leaders," he said.
"What they're doing is reorganising classrooms, literally fighting for demountables so that they can provide a world-class education. They are extremely frustrated with the lack of ICT infrastructure because it's only built for 450 students — and if you put another 500 kids on a school site, you haven't got the power outlets or the ICT outlets or the wireless capabilities."
A spokesman for Treasurer Mike Nahan said budget submissions were confidential, but decisions will be made public in the May 8 State Budget.
Opposition education spokeswoman Sue Ellery said the "one-size-fits-all" model was not working and "infrastructure planning was not keeping up with the hot spots of population growth".
Education Department infrastructure executive director John Fischer said the building guidelines of schools "reflect the expected long-term needs of a school".
"We need to bear in mind that enrolments fluctuate and local surges in student numbers usually decline after a few years as children get older and move to secondary school and beyond," he said.
"When we do have temporary surges in student numbers, transportable classrooms are used as it is not practical or sustainable to build new learning areas or schools every time numbers grow."
Mr Fischer said "priority has been given in recent budgets to provide for the growth in the student numbers".
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
We always like to know what our readers think. Tell us your thoughts below
.
.
Anda sedang membaca artikel tentang
Schools bursting at the seams
Dengan url
https://donyblackedet.blogspot.com/2014/04/schools-bursting-at-seams.html
Anda boleh menyebar luaskannya atau mengcopy paste-nya
Schools bursting at the seams
namun jangan lupa untuk meletakkan link
sebagai sumbernya
0 komentar:
Posting Komentar