I have read the SMH article a few days back regarding the enrolment increase in NSW public School, you can find the actual article by following this link. I have particular interest in the North Shore area, so I thought I do a quick analysis of this area first. I have used the myschool to collect the data from 2008 to 2014. In there mere span of six years from 2008 to 2014, the enrolment number in the public school at primary level in the Sydney North Shore area went from 18417 to 22441, this represent an increase of 22%.
Detailed the school by school break down as following
2008 | 2014 | Percentage Growth | |
---|---|---|---|
Artarmon Public School | 667 | 980 | 47% |
Asquith Public School | 282 | 337 | 20% |
Beaumont Road Public School | 583 | 608 | 4% |
Beauty Point Public School | 240 | 300 | 25% |
Cammeray Public School | 664 | 876 | 32% |
Castle Cove Public School | 375 | 490 | 31% |
Chatswood Public School | 683 | 957 | 40% |
Gordon East Public School | 272 | 352 | 29% |
Gordon West Public School | 425 | 548 | 29% |
Greenwich Public School | 355 | 484 | 36% |
Hornsby Heights Public School | 297 | 386 | 30% |
Hornsby North Public School | 633 | 820 | 30% |
Hornsby South Public School | 389 | 514 | 32% |
Lane Cove Public School | 789 | 824 | 4% |
Lane Cove West Public School | 327 | 576 | 76% |
Lindfield Public School | 660 | 725 | 10% |
Lindfield East Public School | 717 | 764 | 7% |
Middle Harbour Public School | 384 | 563 | 5% |
Mosman Public School | 591 | 696 | 18% |
Mount Colah Public School | 380 | 419 | 10% |
Mount Kuring-gai Public School | 168 | 154 | -9% |
Mowbray Public School | 267 | 378 | 42% |
Neutral Bay Public School | 654 | 898 | 37% |
Normanhurst Public School | 270 | 317 | 17% |
Normanhurst West Public School | 367 | 450 | 23% |
North Sydney Public School | 598 | 751 | 26% |
Northbridge Public School | 460 | 555 | 21% |
Pymble Public School | 532 | 648 | 22% |
Roseville Public School | 623 | 620 | 0% |
St Ives Public School | 381 | 393 | 3% |
St Ives North Public School | 642 | 773 | 20% |
St Ives Park Public School | 203 | 167 | -18% |
Turramurra Public School | 470 | 512 | 9% |
Turramurra North Public School | 298 | 307 | 3% |
Wahroonga Public School | 681 | 723 | 6% |
Waitara Public School | 609 | 659 | 8% |
Warrawee Public School | 382 | 617 | 62% |
West Pymble Public School | 321 | 306 | -5% |
Willoughby Public School | 778 | 994 | 28% |
Total Enrolment Number | 18417 | 22441 | 22% |
As you can see from the table there are some astonishing increase in number of enrolment for some school, in particular Lane Cove West and Warrawee Public School, each had seen 76% and 62% in total enrolment with just six years. There are twelve school in total had increase of more than thirty percent within the same time period. There are twenty three school in total recorded more than twenty percent growth in enrolment during this time period.
Twenty two percent overall growth is already very extreme, however some schools are experiencing very significant growth even higher than this rate. There really need to be some serious forward planning and capacity increase. From what I can see personally, this trend is unlikely to slow down anytime soon in Sydney at least in the North Shore area.
Many of the public schools in the area that I know off already crammed full of demountables or are in the process of building more to deal with the increase in enrolment. We really need to build and expand more classrooms. This shows how shore sighted the state government had been selling off all the state school sites not that long ago. Education is one of the most important investment we could make in a society and public education act as a safety net for the most disadvantaged which should have receive corresponding priorities.