Parents are being pushed out of the city because of lack of school places for their children, according to residents in Sydney.
One Sydney mother has decided she will be placing her son in a high school in Tamworth next year.
That’s almost a five hour drive and around the same time it takes to get from London to Brussels.
“Inner city students – like my 11-year-old son – are slowly being squeezed out of public schools,” Janine Barrett told the Sydney Morning Herald.
Janine says the Department of Education isn’t thinking about the needs of children who will live in the “large number of apartments being built in the inner city”.
“Our family is one of an increasing number who have decided to flee the CBD for better schools for our children in the country or suburbs,” she said.
So what are urban dwellers up against?
Three out of every five people (60%) live in a capital city, and slightly over a third (35%) live in either Sydney or Melbourne, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).
“The most densely populated part of Australia is a small area just north of Central Railway Station in Sydney, between Pitt and Castlereagh Streets,” say the ABS.
This area has a population density of 186,000 persons per square kilometre and is exactly the area Janine is talking about.
Will families living in the city have to move to find a school? Image via iStock
Janine has says she has “fought hard” to change the “poor prospects” for public school students in the inner city.
Last year, Education Minister Adrian Piccoli promised to provide a school for 1000 primary students in Pyrmont - on an unused depot site.
But the plans were scrapped in order to build a high-rise school on the site of Ultimo Public School – that would cater for less students than promised.
Parents from the school rallied against the decision and were left unsure of what would happen to their children while the construction occurred.
The Department of Education said the change of plans was due to health concerns at the Ultimo site.
"Ultimo Public School will be re-developed on the existing site to increase the capacity of the school to provide accommodation for over 700 students," they said in a statement.
"The project is currently in design phase and construction is expected to be completed in 2018."
So Janine’s idea is to up and leave the area to Tamworth.
I live in the same area. I live in a high-rise apartment full of small dogs, families and trendy couples.
Childcare has been tricky to find and I haven’t even thought about my son’s school years yet because it’s a while off, but I do hope they figure out something by then. I’m not moving to Tamworth. (Not that there’s anything wrong with that).
Would you move to the country to find a place for your kids at school?
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