Ludmilla families deserve answers over school enrolments

NEW data showing enrolments at Ludmilla Primary School are languishing under one-third of capacity should alarm the NT Government

The NT Government should be worried about the data

NEW data showing enrolments at Ludmilla Primary School are languishing under one-third of capacity should alarm the NT Government.

Yes, the school’s enrolment numbers have taken a hit since, as the Education Minister’s office pointed out, the removal of personnel from the Eaton RAAF Base. But those enrolments peaked at only 148 in 2013, well below the school’s capacity of 380.

As it stands, with only 110 students enrolled at the school, valuable public infrastructure lies dormant.

While the government says it will maintain close ties with the defence community to draw more students through the gates, much more needs to be done to put the school’s empty classrooms to use.

Parap and Stuart Park primary schools are facing pressure as their enrolments near capacity at well over 500, so these schools can no longer continue to take on the children of those parents eschewing Ludmilla Primary.

Helping the cause should be a new road to be built near Richardson Park to facilitate safer and more efficient access to the school as promised recently by the government.

More broadly, the government needs to grasp what the bigger picture barriers are to getting parents to enrol their students at Ludmilla.

Aside from the exodus of defence personnel five years ago, the government yesterday would not say what these barriers were.

Until straight answers can be given to these difficult questions, the classrooms will remain pitifully empty.