Murwillumbah Learning Community demerger ‘not in best interests of students’

Frustrated families in Murwillumbah are pleading with the government to reconsider demerging their high school, after a warning the split would put kids’ mental health at risk.

Murwillumbah Learning Community High School in the state’s north is set to be demerged back into two high schools, splitting opinion among parents and teachers.

Frustrated families in a flood-affected regional community have accused the NSW government of “blowing a massive opportunity” for their town by splitting their high school in half, while a third party has declared the demerger is not in students’ best interests.

Murwillumbah Learning Community, a combined school in the Tweed Shire brought together by the controversial merging of Wollumbin High School and Murwillumbah High School under the previous government, is slated to be demerged back into two schools over the coming years.

The Daily Telegraph can reveal a youth wellbeing organisation conducted its own consultation with parents, teachers and students, independent of the Department of Education’s consultation process, and concluded the demerger “would not be in the best interest of the students and would have a significant impact on their mental health and academic opportunities”.

The Rites of Passage Institute’s “scoping day”, conducted just one week before the Education Minister Prue Car travelled to the town to speak to stakeholders, found the school community felt helpless to prevent the demerger going ahead

School and parent bodies had been “unable to find a seat at the table in a meaningful way”, CEO Dr Arne Rubinstein wrote.

Youth wellbeing organisation Rites of Passage Institute recommends against demerging the high school.

The Education Minister has doubled down on the demerger as an election promise she’s committed to fulfilling, however multiple families who spoke to The Daily Telegraph questioned why the Minister has refused point-blank to consider retaining the merged high school while keeping the two primary schools separate.

Parents Rachel and Dylan Bryant are among those furious that their son, in Year 9 at MLC, and daughter in Year 10 might now miss out on studying at a brand-new school with similar access to academic resources as those in Sydney would get.

Concept designs for the Murwillumbah Education Campus: a proposed amalgamation of four schools in the area under the previous government.

Funding has not yet been allocated for the upgrades required to bring all four schools up to standard.

The former government had proposed to spend $100 million on the new K-12 campus, and a parliamentary budget office costing found the government would save $83.5 million by scrapping the project.

“These kids are missing out on the opportunities city kids get, and for what? For 75 per cent of their classrooms to be empty? I’m baffled by it,” Mr Bryant said.

“Politicians are ruining our education system, there’s no doubt about it. They’re blowing a massive generational opportunity for this town that desperately needs it.”

While enrolment numbers continue to drop across the two high schools, which are situated just five minutes apart from one another with approximately 700 students combined, the couple say nearby Catholic and Adventist private schools are “bursting at the seams”.

“By demerging, they’re pitting two public high schools against each other,” Mrs Bryant said.

“Surely it’s not too late for the government to reconsider.”