KEY POINTS:
Children at a south Canterbury school were being taught out of a shipping container because the Ministry of Education would not give it another classroom until it had an enrolment scheme in place, Act MP Heather Roy said today.
Mrs Roy said she had been helping Longbeach School, southeast of Ashburton, try to address roll growth and overcrowding issues.
The school - a merger of Flemington, Eiffleton and Willowby rural schools - had 115 pupils and five teachers but just four teaching spaces.
"It is entitled to a new classroom."
By July 1, its roll would have grown to 126 and it was expected to reach 135 places by the end of the year so would need two extra teaching spaces.
Due to lack of classroom space pupils had been taught in the school library and corridors for the past 15 months.
"Yet the ministry refuses to give Longbeach even the extra classroom it requested, demanding instead that the school implement an enrolment zone."
Mrs Roy said she had yesterday attended the opening of Longbeach School's "classroom five" - a shipping container.
Ministry regional manager (southern) Mike DeAth told The Press newspaper that the school had continued to enrol outside a proposed zone and had to be aware that the siblings of those children might not be able to attend the school.
Boards of trustees had to follow rules or an enrolment scheme could be imposed, he said.
However, the ministry preferred to continue discussions.
Boards of trustees had to provide a safe environment for pupils and he was surprised the school had brought in a container when discussions with the ministry were under way.
School principal Adele Gott told The Press the ministry wanted the school kept as a four-room school with a roll of about 100.
- NZPA
