Corrimal schools will suffer under State Government cuts

CLASSROOMS and toilet blocks at Corrimal and Corrimal East Public Schools are set to become dirtier under the NSW Government’s plan to slash school cleaning hours.

State Labor MP for Keira Ryan Park said the cut is part of the Liberal Government’s unprecedented $1.7 billion attack on education funding.

Internal Education Department documents have revealed more than 600 schools will lose hours in cleaning work each week under the O’Farrell Government’s plan to slash school cleaning budgets.

According to the Clean Schools website, the following schools are set to have their cleaning hours cut by the O’Farrell Government:
Corrimal Public School will be slashed by 5.10 hours, Corrimal East Public School will be slashed by 2.13 hours.

“Illawarra school students will be forced to learn in dirty classrooms because of the O’Farrell Government’s disgraceful $1.7 billion cut to education funding in NSW,” Mr Park said.

“Cutting funding for the most basic cleaning services in our schools is proof these $1.7 billion in cuts will impact on every aspect of our education system.

“Any parent, teacher or student would tell you schools should have more cleaning hours, not less.

“These funding cuts will simply force cleaners to spend so little time cleaning classrooms and toilet blocks that it will be impossible to get the job done properly.

“The O’Farrell Government is putting cost cutting ahead of basic standards of cleanliness in our schools.”

Mr Park said the cuts to school cleaning hours were just the latest blow to Illawarra schools under the O’Farrell Government.

The O’Farrell Government has already announced:

* $1.7 billion to be cut from public schools, Catholic schools, independent schools and TAFE colleges;

*1800 teachers, TAFE teachers and support staff to be sacked;

* TAFE fees to increase by 9.5 per cent;

* The government will stop subsidising certain TAFE courses.

“Cuts of this magnitude will have an impact on education in the Illawarra and NSW for generations to come,” Mr Park said.