The Palaszczuk Government’s record investment in education infrastructure is ensuring that Queensland’s state schools can cater for ever-increasing student enrolments, Education Minister Grace Grace said today.
“State schools are great schools and in recent years we have seen strong enrolment growth at public schools right across Queensland,” Ms Grace said.
“Media reports today suggesting that more than 100 state schools were operating above their capacity did not accurately represent the built capacity of these schools.”
A school’s built capacity is the actual number of students that can be accommodated in classrooms at that school.
“No student wanting to enrol at their local state school is ever turned away,” Ms Grace said.
“State schools prioritise in-catchment students ahead of out-of-catchment students. If a state school experiences stronger than anticipated enrolment growth, the Department of Education ensures all students are accommodated so they can receive a world-class education.”
Ms Grace said the Palaszczuk Government had provided record funding to build new schools and extra classrooms right across the state to ensure local schools could cater for increasing enrolments.
“Our ambitious infrastructure program has seen 13 new state schools opened in Queensland since 2015,” she said.
“In fact, there are more than 2,000 additional state school classrooms in Queensland today compared to four years ago.
“A further eight new schools will be opened in 2020, taking the total number of new schools delivered by the Palaszczuk Government to 21.
“Hundreds of millions of dollars are also being invested to delivery additional enrolment capacity at existing state schools right across the state.”
