FOUR Bathurst region public schools are currently operating above capacity, it has been revealed.
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Documents obtained under freedom-of-information laws and released at a budget estimates meeting on Monday showed more than one-third of NSW schools are full and 180 are stretched beyond their capacity.
Among them are Perthville Public School, Carenne School, Raglan Public School and Bathurst Public School.
And a NSW parliamentary inquiry has heard pressure on the state’s schools is likely to increase over the coming decade as the Department of Education braces for a major surge in enrolments.
Comparing the number of teachers to classrooms, a measure used by the department to measure a school's capacity, more than 800 public schools across NSW are operating at 100 per cent capacity or more.
That represents 37 per cent of the state's schools. Some 180 schools, or more than eight per cent, are stretched beyond their limits, the department's figures show.
Perthville Public School is listed as the most stretched school in the state, currently operating at 120 per cent capacity, with Carenne (113 per cent), Raglan (10 per cent) and Bathurst (104 per cent) operating above 100 per cent.
Shadow Education Minister and former school principal Jihad Dib said teachers in high schools were having to use spaces such as metalwork shop rooms to teach English.
"It's a huge amount of pressure on schools and teachers are being forced to find spaces outside of classrooms," Mr Dib said.
He said that students at over-capacity schools in regional areas were most affected by overcrowding and had to travel longer distances to alternative schools.
But in a budget estimates hearing on Monday the Education Minister, Adrian Piccoli, denied that schoolchildren were crammed like “battery hens”.
“We have an announced in this year’s budget an investment of an additional billion dollars [in the school system],” Mr Piccoli said.
See the full list of schools here.