The state government is facing a crisis of overcrowding in primary schools in Sydney's north, with some schools projected to be enrolling more than double the numberof students they have space for within four years.
Leaked education department projections show almost every primary school on the lower north shore is running at capacity with many stretched beyond it. The schools are now expecting increases of between 20 and 40 per cent in the next four years.
Manly Vale Public School is running at 214 per cent of its capacity and enrolments are expected to grow by almost 40 per cent more by 2018.
"North Sydney is our biggest problem child," a senior department source said.
Fairfax Media revealed on Friday that, on its own estimates, the education department will be overwhelmed in the next two decades by an increase in Sydney's student population of one-third, or 250,000 students.
On present trends, it will fall $7 billion short of the funding needed to secure the 220 extra schools it requires.
But the data shows the state government is facing a more immediate crisis on Sydney's north shore.
Greenwich Public School is at 200 per cent of its official capacity with 493 students but forecasts suggest it will be operating at 260 per cent within four years.
The education department has been surprised by the increasing number of parents enrolling their children in the public system. Enrolment in northern Sydney in the past three years has grown at double other areas of Sydney.
"For the last 20 years there has been little capital investment in north Sydney schools," the source said.
It has spent most of its budget for the past two years in the area. And it has set aside funding for two new schools on the north shore.
But insiders argue the troubles have been compounded by some of the department's own planning decisions.
In the midst of these overloaded schools, the Education Department sold a 5500 square metre TAFE building in Seaforth. It was sold in 2011 to Manly council at a discounted price of $4.5 million, or less than half its $11 million value.
Manly Village Public School sits on 0.9 hectares. The school is operating at 100 per cent capacity with an enrolment of 688; 200 more students are expected within four years.
Parents have expressed outrage that a school building with space for up to five classrooms has been leased to the Manly Community Centre. That lease was renewed last year.
Five primary schools in the region are projected to have more than 1000 students within three years, including Harbord Public School with 1254.
The president of the Northern Sydney Council of P&C Associations, David Hope, said the primary schools in the lower and mid north are increasingly having their playground space given over to demountable classrooms.
"At Neutral Bay a few years ago the P&C had spent a whole lot of money on a playground and the next thing that was ripped out and a demountable was put in," he said.
The president of the NSW Teachers Federation, Maurie Mulheron, said it was "inadequate and unacceptable" for schools to be operating above their capacity.
"It leads to all sorts of pressures on playground space, classroom allocation and social relations between students," he said. "And, more importantly, it puts pressure on important learning spaces."
A spokesman for Education Minister Adrian Piccoli said the government allocated $70 million for new buildings in the 2013-14 State Budget.
