The ACT Education Directorate has launched a review costing more than half a million dollars into future student demand, due to Canberra's growing population.
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The directorate awarded a $531,000 contract to the Australian National University's School of Demography last month to conduct the review over three years.
The review would look to completely overhaul the directorate's current projections for future student demand over the next decade for ACT public schools.
Contract documents said the directorate's current model was unable to function well enough to adequately plan for future school infrastructure.
"Enhancement of [the directorate's] student-demand modelling is required at this time to respond to a number of factors, including significant increased demand for government school education, arising from population growth," the contract read.
"At present, the student demand model does not take account of these factors sufficiently well to enable school infrastructure planning at the small area level."
Other factors cited in the contract included a large shift of students from private to public schools and increased urban infill targets set by the ACT government.
The review would include a complete overhaul of "all underlying assumptions and source data" used to currently project student numbers for ACT schools.
An Education Directorate spokesman said the School of Demography undertook a previous review of student demand modelling in 2016, shortly after the most recent census.
"The current contract with the ANU will build on this review and will develop an updated student demand model, as well as additional research services," the spokesman said.
"The directorate concluded that continuing the partnership with the ANU would provide the best value for money for the targeted outcomes."
According to contract documents, a project plan is set to be signed off by the end of March, with the review set to finish by the end of 2021.
The directorate spokesman said the new demand model would be able to better plan for student growth.
"The updated model should be able to better model urban infill, have improved capabilities around tracking and predicting student movements between schools and deliver improved scenario modelling capabilities," the spokesman said.
Currently, student projection models are used by the directorate to plan for enrolment numbers at government schools and infrastructure or students, with the annual school census helping to provide data for future projections.
The most recent school census, released May 2018, showed almost 20 per cent of Canberra schools were full or close to full.
It showed 15 schools were bursting at the seams, operating at between 90 and 102 per cent capacity, while 12 schools were less than half full.
Public school enrolments have increased 13 per cent since 2014, with there being more than 77,000 students across the ACT.
The directorate identified several challenges with current planning measures, including new housing developments along Northbourne Avenue, new housing developments, a high turnover of school-aged migrants and aging neighbourhoods.
Non-government schools would also be included as part of the review.
The review comes as the public school system welcomed an estimated 1340 additional students in 2019.
New schools are set to open in Canberra while the review takes place, with a primary school in Denman Prospect catering to 600 student slated to start classes in 2021.
The government is set to release land for future school sites in Gungahlin, West Belconnen and Molonglo Valley in coming years.
The directorate spokesman said the review would not impact on new schools planned in coming years, with student forecasts in the short to medium not to be affected.
"The directorate and the ANU intend to progressively refine the model and its assumptions over the next three years. Demand forecasting will continue over the period without interruption," the spokesman said
"The student demand forecast we have for the short to medium term is accurate, and this review will not have any impact on new schools planned to be built in the next few years."
