Though the NSW Government is making “the largest investment in public education infrastructure in the history of the state” – $7.9 billion over the next four years – Campbelltown MP Greg Warren is dumbfounded by the Government’s repeated refusal to plan for any new schools in the Campbelltown LGA.
The Government’s Glenfield to Macarthur Corridor Strategy released several years ago, stated that no new schools would be built in Campbelltown despite the predicted growth in population – largely due to developments in Menangle Park and Gilead.
Mr Warren recently submitted a question on notice asking whether the NSW Government had had a change of heart regarding the strategy.
The answer was a clear no.
“The schools within the Campbelltown area and surrounds continue to be monitored by the Department and in close collaboration with other NSW Government agencies and stakeholders to ensure educational needs are being met,” Minister for Skills, and Training, Alister Henskens MP said on behalf of the Minister for Education, Sarah Mitchell MLC.
The Minister is of the view that a number of schools across the Glenfield to Macarthur region have surplus teaching spaces and can accommodate current and projected enrolments.
“Tens of thousands of people are going to call Menangle Park and Gilead home in the coming years,” Mr Warren said.
“Those estates won’t be made up solely of retirees, bachelors and bachelorettes – there will be families with children who choose to reside there.
“Those children will need to go school somewhere and that will place further pressure on local schools and the staff at those schools.”
Shadow Minister for Education, Prue Car MP, said the Perrottet Government had its priorities all wrong particularly in Campbelltown and South West Sydney.
