Temporary visa kids kept out of Western Sydney public school

A Western Sydney school has come under fire for an “unfair” ban on enrolments for the children of temporary visa holders even if they live in the school’s local catchment area.

Migrant parents on temporary visas have been banned from enrolling their children in one Western Sydney public school even if they live within the catchment area.

Parramatta East Public told prospective parents hoping to send their children to the school for Kindergarten in 2023 that they cannot go to their school and must instead enrol at Bayanami Public, which has worse NAPLAN results.

“Please be aware that we are unable to accept enrolments from Temporary Visa holders, even those within our catchment area,” the school said.

“These children must be enrolled at Bayanami Public School.”

The school said it would accept a student who was a temporary visa holder if they already had a sibling at the school.

Dr Yadu Singh said different rules should not apply to children on a different visa, especially when the child’s parents were also paying taxes.

Federation of Indian Associations of NSW secretary Dr Yadu Singh said Parramatta and its surrounding suburbs was where Indian migrants on temporary visas tended to live alongside other suburbs like Harris Park.

He said those parents on temporary visas should be able to attend the school if they resided in the catchment area, as per the Department of Education rules and to apply different rules to this group was “unfair”.

“The parents are living here and working here and paying taxes,” he said.

“Their children have to be looked after, this sounds very high handed — why do they have to go to the next school? This is not very caring.”

A Department of Education spokesman insisted that migrants had not been banned but said the stricter rules for children on temporary visas were to deal with overcrowding.

“Under rules consistent across NSW, temporary residents are able to enrol their children at their local school if that school can accommodate them,” he said.

Parramatta East Public School has been given funding for a major upgrade.

“Parramatta East Public School hasn’t banned migrant students from enrolling at the school – to claim otherwise is completely false and unfair on the school community.”

Other schools to ban kids on temporary visas include Westmead Public which has 24 demountables and Parramatta North Public which has seven demountables in the playground and is also over its enrolment cap by 155 students.

Labor’s Education spokeswoman Prue Car said the government had failed to build enough new classrooms and schools to deal with population growth all over Sydney.

Prue Car said the government had dropped the ball when it came to giving Western Sydney the schools it needed. Picture: Damian Shaw

“The Perrottet Government is having to turn students away from their local public schools because they’ve failed to build enough classrooms in growing areas like Parramatta,” she said.

“If the NSW Liberal Government had built schools they promised before the last election, like the new Westmead primary school, then we might not have such a widespread overcrowding problem.”

It comes after parents living in the southwest Sydney suburbs of Leppington, Denham Court and Edmondson Park were advised last month they will be told which school their child can attend in 2023.

Sarah Mitchell has revealed that three southwest Sydney schools will tell parents where they have to send their child in 2023 in a bid to make sure everybody gets a place. Picture: Jeremy Piper

Education Minister Sarah Mitchell’s plan for those three schools was designed to make sure the student population is spread evenly across the three different schools and make sure every child has a place in their Kindergarten class.

Carlingford West Public in northwest Sydney, which has become one of Sydney’s most popular schools thanks to good NAPLAN results, will reduce its catchment area yet again next year in a bid to reduce overcrowding.

“The intake area for Epping West Public School will change for all new enrolments from 2023,” advice posted by the Department of Education’s SchoolFinder website said.

Under NSW rules, schools must accept every single student who lives in a catchment zone, meaning schools must install unsightly demountables on grassed playgrounds while other so-called ghost schools are half full with students.