The lack of a local school at Murrumbateman is risking the educational futures of children, an NSW minister has said.
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Minister for Women and Member for Goulburn Pru Goward said the Education Department needs to review its position.
Former local member and NSW Parliament Secretary Katrina Hodgkinson - who has lobbied tirelessly for a school since 1999 – also berated the department for its "intransigence" on the issue, saying its data and projections on enrolments were incorrect.
Consideration of a possible local primary school for the small township has been deferred until 2026 according to the latest needs analysis report by the department.
NSW Education Minister Adrian Piccoli said he had been "advised that current trends and projected demand indicate that a new school will not be required in Murrumbateman until after 2026."
"The Education Department continues to monitor growth in the Murrumbateman area to determine if circumstances change."
About 350 students travel several hours each day on the bus to Canberra schools – anecdotally adding to enrolment pressure in Gungahlin.
The rest travel to three primary schools in Yass – all of which report being at capacity, with Berinba Primary already requiring demountable classrooms.
Ms Goward said "The position of our so-called border towns is quite unique – a point I've made to the NSW Department of Education numerous times.
"The department needs to recognise they can't risk the future educational needs of children in Murrumbateman any longer and I continue to encourage them to review their position."
Ms Goward added that she also encouraged "the ACT Government to directly communicate their position to the NSW Government."
The cost of the 350 NSW students being educated in ACT schools was not directly paid by the NSW Government but was "taken into account" in GST payments through cross-border service provisions, according to the office of ACT Education Minister Joy Burch.
Ms Hodgkinson grew up halfway between Yass and Murrumbateman and said she had spent considerable time researching the case for a school at Murrumbateman.
"The department has spent years trotting out the same old ministerial responses, but they are using incorrect statistics and making assumptions they shouldn't be making. I've done my research and statistics correctly."
Ms Goward, who took over as local member after a redistribution at the last election said she was extremely concerned about the impact a lack of a local school was having on educational opportunities for children growing up in Murrumbateman.
Those who weren't facing long travel time to Canberra were facing enrolment pressures in Yass. But the department's needs analysis argued, among other things, that a local school at Murrumbateman would potentially impact on the viability of the Yass schools.
Ms Hodgkinson, who went to Berinba herself, said this was an incorrect assumption.
"It is an excellent school with hundreds and hundreds of students which will easily survive if Murrumbateman had its own school."
She said it was difficult for the NSW Government to address the situation when the advice it received from its bureaucracy was flawed.
"The population keeps growing, there is still no primary school and still the same answers from the department," Ms Hodgkinson said.
"I'm disappointed the department doesn't take this matter more seriously and take a fresh look and an honest approach to this. It needs to do some research, provide accurate advice to the minister and pay attention to the growing community that is clearly in need of its own primary school."
