Where is the long-term plan for education in Perth’s inner city? Apparently, nowhere

There has been a lack of forward-thinking when it comes to education in Perth’s CBD, with planning needed beyond just one primary school as nearby schools burst at the seams, the area’s federal MP says.

Member for Perth Patrick Gorman has said while plans for the East Perth Primary School and ECU Perth are transforming the city into an education hub, they highlight what is missing – a long-term strategy.

While there are a number of non-government schools in the area including St George’s Anglican Grammar School, Mercedes College and Trinity College, he said it was clear there was a demand for public education.

“We know that Bob Hawke College is already getting to capacity. Mount Lawley Senior High School is full,” Gorman said.

“We’ve got pressures emerging at a range of schools, including Highgate Primary School, but also further out to Maylands Primary School, and so we need to get away from just focusing on one school.

“They’re going to build a new inner-city primary school without starting the planning for another inner-city high school. My view is that the WA Department of Education haven’t really been great at doing that forward planning.”

Gorman said the focus should be on what would be needed in 10 years’ time and beyond, but that it was not just on the department to figure it out.

“It requires conversation between myself, state ministers, local governments – [and] everyone’s talking about this, but we’re not putting it into a plan,” Gorman said.

Finding the land is one obvious hurdle. Gorman suggested the land adjacent to the East Perth power station for a high school – land not currently earmarked for anything.

He also suggested consolidating one of the smaller inner-city TAFE sites with Northbridge TAFE – the biggest – to make space for another primary school.

But with differing opinions at play, working collaboratively is proving difficult. Even plans for the one agreed-upon new facility, the East Perth Primary School, have struggled to get off the ground.

Gorman said Perth Lord Mayor Basil Zempilas had turned himself into a “human roadblock” to the build.

“We need to open up that conversation in a way that’s not a fight between the current lord mayor and whoever else,” he said.

“I think we can do a lot better, and just have a bit more of a mature conversation.”

Zempilas said both he and the council had been advocating for a new school since being elected in 2020.

The City’s 2022 local planning strategy suggests a new primary school is needed by 2026 and a new high school by 2036, to cover East Perth and Claisebrook.

“The state government has identified a parcel of land in East Perth, that they themselves valued at $40 million,” Zempilas said of the new school plans.

“Negotiations are continuing, and options have been put forward to the director general of education, should the state government continue to be reluctant to pay the true value of the land.”

A state government spokesman said Bob Hawke College had provided enrolment relief for Churchlands Senior High School which had since recorded a welcome decrease in enrolments.

He also said major upgrades under way at Mount Lawley Senior High School and Shenton College would both open before the end of the year, while a $51 million upgrade of John Forrest Secondary College was opened last month.

Planning for a $12 million modular classroom block at Highgate Primary School is also under way, while work on the East Perth primary school continued.

“The state government is currently delivering a record education infrastructure program for inner-city Perth,” he said.

“[The planned school] will be the single biggest investment in a public primary school in our state’s history, and the only thing standing in the way of that project starting is the Liberal candidate for Churchlands [Zempilas] and the City of Perth.”

Affordable medium-density housing in the inner-city is also a factor.

Gorman said population projections indicated Perth’s numbers would rise from 30,000 to 47,000 in next 20 years, and the City of Vincent would add another 10,000 people, meaning more housing would be needed – particularly if more schools were to be built – for both families and teachers.

“We do it for new-build suburbs. We’re really good there. I think the [state government] has struggled a little bit on the inner city,” he said.

But he said it was the responsibility of governments to solve multiple complex problems.

“That is what governments are elected to do. I don’t think it’s beyond us to be able to plan what schools will need in the future.”

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