Surge in demountable classrooms: how your NSW public school fares

They’re meant to be a temporary fix but new figures show there’s more than 5000 demountables at the state’s public schools - one which has been in place for more than 40 years. Search how many are at your school.

They are meant to be a temporary fix but new figures show there’s more than 5000 demountable classrooms at NSW public schools, one which has been in place for more than 40 years.

Carlingford West Public School – in Premier Dominic Perrottet’s seat of Epping – has the highest number of demountables in NSW, with 81 temporary learning spaces.

Riverbank Public, Castle Hill High, Chatswood High, Girraween Public and The Ponds High round out the top six, with between 44 and 52 demountables respectively.

The Department of Education figures, obtained under freedom of information laws, reveal a total of 5093 demountables across the state’s public schools as at April 2022; an average of 2.3 per school.

It’s a rise from April 2011, when there were 3908 demountable classrooms.

NSW Teachers Federation president Angelo Gavrielatos said the NSW government had cut over $1 billion from the public school capital works budget in 2021/22 and students were “paying the price”.

Mr Gavrielatos said the government had its “priorities” all wrong, slamming the millions spent on capital works at the state’s private schools this financial year.

For instance, he said $2 million had gone towards replacing demountable classrooms at St Mary’s Catholic Primary, Noraville, and a further $2 million had seen the construction of a three-storey learning centre with an amphitheatre and music rooms at Shellharbour Anglican College.

“While public school students are stuck in demountables, the Perrottet government is giving millions to private schools to replace them with permanent classrooms and build amphitheatres and digital photography studios,” Mr Gavrielatos said.

Aerial images of adjoining schools The Ponds High School and Riverbank Primary School showing the huge amounts of demountable class rooms. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

“This government has been warned time and time again that NSW is on track to run out of classroom space and that demountables should never be used as a permanent or semipermanent solution.”

He said a school in the central west, Trunkey Public, had been using a demountable for 43 years.

The Ponds High School P & C representative Darshan Lal said there were now more demountables than permanent classrooms at the western Sydney school.

“When the school was built it was only ever meant to house around 800 students, but now we have almost 2000,” he said.

Education Minister Sarah Mitchell says funding for schools has never been better under her government. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Tim Hunter

“So we’ve seen demountable after demountable placed on a site which doesn’t have the space for them - and it means less space for our students to get out in the open.

“It’s got to the point where there needs to be staggered lunch breaks because if all the kids were outside at one time it would be like a crowd at a soccer match.”

Education Minister Sarah Mitchell said the government had responded to a significant increase in enrolments since 2011 by overseeing an $18 billion school building program which had delivered more than 200 new and upgraded schools across NSW.

Demountables were used by governments to manage fluctuations in enrolments, cater for students when natural disasters occurred and when major building projects were underway. All demountables were airconditioned and regularly refurbished.

“Since 2017, we’ve invested $9.1 billion on new and upgraded schools with a further $8.6 billion committed over the next four years,” she said.

“The NSW Liberal and Nationals Government has also committed to a further $1.2 billion in new and upgraded schools, to make sure kids across the state continue to get the best education possible.”

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Originally published as Surge in demountable classrooms: how your NSW public school fares