Wyndham is the fastest-growing municipality in the state but doesn’t have educational infrastructure to meet demand, an analysis by the Grattan Institute has found.
More than 1000 new classrooms are needed to accommodate the projected 66 per cent growth in student numbers in the next decade, the institute concludes.
The analysis found that there will be an additional 13,896 primary school students and 12,845 extra secondary students in Wyndham in the next 10 years.
But Education Department spokeswoman Diana Robertson remains positive about meeting the demands of the soaring population.
“The department is aware of the impact of population growth in Wyndham and is committed to working with the Metropolitan Planning Authority and City of Wyndham to develop solutions for meeting current and future school demand,” she said.
Ms Robertson said Davis Creek Primary School, for which the acquisition of a site was provided in the 2015-16 state budget, would ease some of the enrolment pressures for pupils in Tarneit.
“The government has also committed to funding a senior secondary college in Point Cook in this term of government and has fast-tracked the delivery of the Point Cook South P-9 to open in term one, 2018.”
Ms Robertson also listed investing in school building infrastructure works for Tarneit P-9 and Werribee Secondary colleges as ways to combat the growth.
But Western Metropolitan Liberal MP Bernie Finn has labelled the government’s investment in schools across Wyndham as pathetic.
“I was in horror when I discovered there were no schools being opened this year,” he said. “We’re allowing people to build homes and move in, but where are the children going to be going to school?”
Questioned on the former Napthine government’s investment in Wyndham schools, Mr Finn said there had been a lot over the course of the four-year term.
He listed the new autistic school in Laverton; funding for new schools in Tarneit, Manor Lakes, Point Cook South and Wyndham Vale South; and modernising other schools, such as Galvin Park Secondary College, as some of the investments.
