Under-utilised classrooms inherited from previous government

24/8/93

There are enough under-utilised classrooms in Western Australian schools to house more than 19,000 students.

Education Minister Norman Moore said today that the previous Labor Government's poor management of the bricks and mortar of the school system had left serious inequities.

Mr Moore said, however, no schools would be closed in Western Australia without community consultation in advance, and no final decisions had been made.  In the event of any closure decision, school communities would have time to make other arrangements.

The Education Ministry was continually examining school populations and evaluating whether the taxpayers would be best served by amalgamations of schools competing for the same students, or closing those with falling enrolments.

The Minister said Labor's mismanagement had left a legacy of 600 permanent, non-movable classrooms across the State which were under-used, at the same time that many schools had numbers of demountable classrooms.

"To put this in perspective, if it were possible to physically shift these under-utilised classrooms to overcrowded or growing schools, we would not need to build another primary school for four years, or another secondary school for 18 months," Mr Moore said.

The whole system also needed about $400 million in maintenance and upgrading to bring schools up to contemporary standards, and the growing population required more new schools to be built.

Prior to 1987, an average of between six and 10 schools were closed each year, due to changes in population and education needs.

Since 1987, however, despite the continuing population changes, just nine schools had been closed under Labor, including two in mining towns which ceased to exist, and four were amalgamated - leaving growing inefficiencies and waste in the system.

"Education is fundamentally about the end result for students and the taxpayers of this State deserve better than having hundreds of under-used classrooms eating into funds which could otherwise be used to better educate children," Mr Moore said.

Media contact: Ross Storey 321 1444/222 9595