Ministry of Education puts Cromwell school build on ice

A Cromwell principal is worried her pupils will be forced to learn in makeshift classrooms after a Ministry of Education decision to put a building project on hold.

Goldfields Primary School had been moving forward with the ministry on plans to build a new block with two extra classrooms to accommodate flagged roll growth.

But theirs is now one of 100 school building projects around the country the ministry has pressed pause on.

The ministry says its value for money review questioned 352 projects costing a total $4.6 billion, and by deferring some works and changing the scope of others it has carved out $2 billion in savings.

However Goldfields Primary School principal Anna Harrison says she is "really disappointed" by the move.

She now has no definite timeline for when additional classrooms will be delivered at her school.

"We are likely to be put into a position where we will have to be bursting at the seams and repurposing other spaces like our library, hall or breakout spaces as makeshift classrooms before the ministry will reconsider the project.

"The approach that was being adopted was to build classrooms as the school grows so that we have the spaces we need when we need them.

"A return to a system that reacts to overcrowding rather than preparing for growth just puts additional pressure on schools."

The ministry says the 100 projects chosen not to proceed will be reconsidered as part of its Budget process next year.

It says the cost to build new classrooms has increased significantly over recent years, forcing it to consider all non-essential elements of school building projects as well as simpler, repeatable, modular solutions to find "cost efficiencies".

Down the road, Clyde Primary School and Dunstan High School will also for now miss out on flagged roll growth classrooms, while another redevelopment project at Dunstan High School will proceed along with a roll growth project at The Terrace School in Alexandra.

Main image: Cromwell's Goldfields Primary School is in limbo after the Ministry of Education announced its was one of 100 school building projects put on hold after a spending review.