Students and staff at several Campbelltown schools will be doing it tough if they are forced to sit in non-air-conditioned classrooms and offices again this summer.
Schools affected include Leumeah High School, Campbelltown Performing Arts High School and Rosemeadow Public School, which didn’t make the government’s Cooler Classrooms.
The government’s policy of cherry-picking certain schools to receive air-conditioning has meant many students and staff have been forced to suffer through sweltering summers, say local Labor MP Greg Warren and his colleague, the opposition education spokesperson, Prue Car, pictured below.
They say that the government’s own policy states schools located in areas where the average January maximum temperature is 30 degrees Celsius or higher would automatically be air-conditioned.
Bureau of Meteorology figures show the average maximum January temperature recorded at Camden Airport weather station – the closest to Campbelltown – has been above 30 degrees Celsius for the past 10 years.
Yet the local schools listed above and others have missed out.
“The Cooler Classrooms program was meant to provide better learning environments and boost the economy – instead it’s created disappointment and false hope,” says Ms Car.
“It will be summer again very soon and hundreds of schools are still waiting for promised air conditioning, with hundreds more missing out.
“We know summers are getting hotter and it’s not comfortable for kids to learn in older sweat box classrooms in Western Sydney.
“Children shouldn’t be sweltering at school.”
Mr Warren says he cannot fathom the government’s treatment of Campbelltown students and school staff.
“Students can’t be expected to thrive in a classroom when they are slowly roasting away,” he said.
“While the premier and the education minister enjoy the comforts of air-conditioning in their taxpayer-funded offices, thousands of Campbelltown students and staff suffer silently in sweat boxes.
“It is not an outlandish ask to make sure all public schools in Campbelltown are adequately air-conditioned.
“It’s going to be another long, hot and uncomfortable summer for many students and staff in Campbelltown.”
