Three-hundred and eight children from the Yass Valley cross the border each day to receive an education in the ACT, this number grows each year, this education is not subsidised by the NSW government.
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According to the NSW Department of Education, approximately 50 primary school aged children from Murrumbateman Village attend school in Yass, while 308 students cross the border - 133 attending government schools and 175 non-government.
A spokesperson from the ACT Education and Training Directorate said that the NSW Government does not provide any direct funding to the ACT Government for schooling a student who lives in NSW and NSW students are at the bottom of the admissions order.
“Where demand for places at a particular school exceeds available places, applications from NSW residents will not be considered,” the spokesperson said.
“In these circumstances, the Education and Training Directorate will assist families to enrol at another ACT public school.”
At a meeting at the Murrumbateman Inn on Tuesday evening community members and parents spoke out about the frustration of ACT schools filling up fast and NSW children being put onto waiting lists.
“We are at the bottom of the pecking order,” one parent said.
“The problem is that we [Murrumbateman residents] work in Canberra and Yass is the wrong way to be sending our children. We want a chance of having meaningful connections such as attending school assemblies or helping out with reading.”
According to Yass Valley Council statistics, the Murrumbateman community has a population growth rate of 49.7 per cent.
“We don’t want to be a last priority, we want to have peace of mind that our kids will be able to attend school, something that our government demands of us,” another resident exclaimed.
Jasmin Jones who has played an active part in securing a school for Murrumbateman, said that it is about time the NSW Department of Education put “our families first in line".
“...Instead of the current status quo which is do nothing and let parents scrabble around for left overs, calling all the schools in the ACT for whatever scraps of capacity they can find or forking out big money for private education,” she said.
“The last letter I wrote to Education Minister Piccoli regarding Murrumbateman school, the Relieving Deputy Secretary responded on his behalf claiming there was no impediment to NSW students attending government schools, IF the schools had capacity for additional enrolments."
Member for Goulburn Pru Goward, said that the Minister for Education is, "taking the matter seriously and could not provide comment in time.”
