A Point Cook man believes it’s time for the state government to commit to building another primary and high school in the suburb.
Dwayne Kelly said he believes the current school options have not kept up with demand.
“Unfortunately, we are now seeing the effects of a state government that is having a knee jerk reaction to a situation that has been identified by local residents for years,” he said.
“The current options and overcrowding are a direct result of poor planning and government investment into the west.
“Point Cook is one of the largest suburbs in Australia and is still growing at a rapid rate.
“Some people purely cannot afford the costs of private schooling– especially in a cost of living crisis.”
Mr Kelly said that the number of students at each school risks diminishing the quality of education.
“All students are different and require different levels of education, it is not one size fits all,” he said.
“If you have too many students in one class, it’s extremely unfair to expect our educators to be able to do their job adequately.”
He said that a dedicated high school is important to prevent a bottleneck of students going into VCE or having to leave the suburb.
“Currently we have five P-9 colleges, with a soon to be opened sixth, that filter into two allocated secondary schools that offer a VCE program.
“Point Cook desperately needs another public high school to cope with the impending demand in the next decade.”
A Department of Education spokesperson said the state government is opening a new P-9 college next year to help handle demand.
“A brand new school, Yurran P-9 College is opening in Point Cook next year,” the spokesperson said.
“The school will have four double-storey buildings and design, art, tech and science spaces.”
Star Weekly understands the department has an annual strategic planning process to ensure current and future demand for schools is properly planned for and accommodated. Regular reviews of enrolment trends, as well as forecasting population demand and the capacity of government schools is understood to be part of this process.
