Page 278 - Week 01 - Thursday, 15 February 2018
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enrolments were 608 in 2016 and the figure was 621 in 2017. Similarly, 2016 enrolment projections for Palmerston District Primary School were 450, with an actual enrolment of 526 in 2016 and 607 in 2017. Minister, why are your directorate’s projections so wrong?
MS BERRY: First of all, I should say that every public school in Canberra can accommodate students who live within the school’s priority enrolment area. More than 700 places have been provided in Gungahlin schools for 2017 and for the start of the 2018 year, and in the coming years new schools will be built in Molonglo as well as in Gungahlin. Adjustments are made to priority enrolment areas based on information and advice to the Education Directorate and how they manage school enrolments. This can include reducing out of area enrolments; adjusting the PEA boundaries; making better use of available space, whether that is temporary or for the medium or long term; and planning for temporary capacity increases, which will include permanent structures or transportable structures to ensure that the schools can best meet their communities’ needs.
I do not have the detail of every single school’s projections in front of me, as Ms Lee might have, but I can assure Ms Lee that the Education Directorate works very hard every year to ensure that schools meet the needs of our students in the ACT.
MS LEE: Minister, how many other schools are close to or exceeding capacity, and which schools are they?
MS BERRY: I can provide the member with some information on the particular question she has asked around a particular school’s capacity. But for some more information around capacity, I can let the member know that where schools are projected as having high—or greater than 85 per cent—or low—less than 40 per cent—utilisation, schools use and implement the school enrolment management plans. I can provide Ms Lee with information on those plans as well, to help her with her understanding of capacity in schools across the ACT. Sometimes a school’s capacity can be temporarily adjusted to take into account best practice. Sometimes the school capacity working groups, which comprise representatives from infrastructure, capital works, planning and analytics branches, meet to—
Ms Lee: A point of order, Madam Speaker.
MADAM SPEAKER: A point of order.
Ms Lee: We are almost halfway through, so I have taken the time to listen, and the question actually was: how many other schools, and what schools are they? The minister actually has not answered that question.
MS BERRY: I think I did at the very start.
MADAM SPEAKER: I think there was reference to not having that information, and providing it when it comes through.
Ms Lee: Can I confirm that she will take it on notice?
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