ACT Budget 2022-23 lacks long-term planning for public schools, parents say

ACT Council of Parents and Citizens Associations president Alison Elliott said the territory was only funding what was urgently needed, not what will be required in the long term.

"We are pleased to see that the budget contains significant spending on schools. Most of it is needed to meet the challenge of providing enough public school places for a growing population," Ms Elliott said.

"This is important, and parents want quality school expansions where needed, not just the addition of transportable classrooms. But we are concerned that it is not forward-thinking enough."

The budget includes funding for new schools in Strathnairn, Whitlam, Kenny and Taylor. It also funds modernisation and expansion projects at Majura Primary, Garran Primary and Narrabundah College.

Ms Elliott said more needed to be done to alleviate school capacity problems in growing areas.

"The budget only provides for increased school capacity where it is already urgently needed," she said.

"Because planning and building takes time, we'd like to see funding for the schools we will need in a few years - high school capacity for the inner north, schools for students in new dwellings around Belconnen and Woden town centres."

The council welcomed funding to plan a second college in Gungahlin but were concerned it may come too late.

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Gungahlin College P&C Association president Rachel Armstrong said the existing college was already at full capacity and was predicted to keep growing.

"Staff have been amazing in exercising all possible flexibility and creativity in dealing with this, but we don't see how it can be pushed further," Ms Armstrong said.

"The ACT government has known about our enrolment pressures for years, so we are disappointed to hear that planning is only just starting for a second college.

"Parents are concerned about the quality of teaching and learning that will be possible for college students while we wait for this one to open," she says.

Australian Education Union president Angela Burroughs said the almost $7 million investment in laptops for teachers, casual teachers and other school staff was something that the union had been fighting for for a long time.

Currently devices are provided for full-time equivalent positions so teachers working part-time in job-sharing arrangements might not have their own device.

"It's a small but very important win to us," Ms Burroughs said.

She also welcomed the Safe@Schools taskforce, which will be funded for one year to do a review of safety processes across the public school system following a interventions from WorkSafe ACT.

"Arguably it was the work of our members in insisting that workplaces are safe places for staff and students that has directed attention again to this issue," she said.

"We welcome the taskforce and our involvement in it."

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