‘Thirdworld’ classrooms

By Paul Dunlop
GARFIELD children are being taught in “thirdworld” classrooms, frustrated parents and councillors say.
Garfield Primary School Council and Cardinia Shire representatives are calling on the State Government to help fix escalating maintenance problems at the 120yearold facility.
School council president Heather Van Wel said many of the school classrooms were almost falling apart.
Roof leaks, peeling paint, rotting carpet and cracking walls are among a litany of problems.
Mrs Van Wel said the school was given just $693 for maintenance in the latest round of funding allocations.
“It’s just not good enough,” she said.
“Students and teachers are having to put up with extremely primitive conditions to work and be taught in – they deserve a lot better.”
Cardinia Shire councillors Bill Pearson and Doug Hamilton threw their support behind the school’s bid for State Government funding.
Cr Pearson said the Garfield community was growing but education facilities were not keeping pace. The school’s rundown condition was not good enough, he said.
“There is one permanent classroom in the old school building and the rest are portables,” he said.
“Bits and pieces have been tacked on, there’s rot everywhere.
“You can smell the mustiness and damp in the classrooms. It’s thirdworld.”
Cr Pearson said the school not only needed funding but also a development plan to plot is growth into the future.
Garfield Primary School, which celebrated its centenary in 1986, has more than 120 enrolments this year and that number is already expected to rise in 2007.
Parents undertake working bees to help keep the school neat and tidy, but Mrs Van Wel said structural problems were taking their toll.
“It’s a lovely school but it needs maintenance. The gym is a tin shed that gets boiling hot in summer and freezing cold in winter,” she said.
“The staff are excellent and the children are doing really well but the condition of the school is very frustrating.”
A State Government spokeswoman said an indepth audit had just been completed for every school across the state.
“The Bracks Government has been rebuilding the education system, it is a high priority,” she said.
“In May’s Budget, the Bracks Government allocated an additional $50 million from the Building Tomorrow’s Schools Today fund for school maintenance for all government schools.
“Since 1999 we have invested a massive $6.3 billion in education and training, including $400 million in school maintenance and $1.65 billion on school capital works.
“Schools are allocated $34 million annually for maintenance.”