Desperate plea for more schools in Melbourne’s west
Wyndham City in Melbourne's western suburbs is facing a critical shortage of schools as the population is expected to boom to 500,000 by 2041. Mayor Susan McIntyre calls on the state government to take immediate action and fast-track more schools in the municipality, which currently has 983 students per government school, the highest rate in the state.
Four new schools have opened in Wyndham this year, but seven more are planned to open in 2024. Mayor McIntyre believes more is needed to deal with the projected growth and calls for a school provision plan to be developed for the municipality and the addition of more high schools and specialist schools. Wyndham City's advocacy campaign, "Schools4Wyndham", started around 2018, updates regularly, and clearly states the need for a school in Williams Landing.
The Wyndham suburb, home to more than 1000 primary school-aged children, most desperately needs a school.
An online petition to build a P-12 school in Williams Landing was started in 2014 and has received 1200 signatures.
Former Wyndham councillor and local resident Aaron An agreed that more schools in Wyndham need to be a priority. "We have been campaigning for a new school in Williams Landing since 2014. If you look at the number of students and also the number of schools in Wyndham, we are very far behind," he said.
Schools4Wyndham Campain: What we need and when