TRANSPORTABLE classrooms will be the solution to growing student numbers in Caversham, just two months after the State Government axed plans to build a second school in the area.
The first transportable will be delivered to Caversham Primary School at the end of this term, despite the Government saying there was insufficient demand for the proposed new Caversham South Primary School.
Education Minister Peter Collier confirmed the plan was shelved last month, even though it was in the State Budget less than a year earlier.
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READ NOWThe funds were instead shifted to build a school in west Byford.
Caversham PS, which is actually north of Reid Highway in the suburb of West Swan, currently has 227 students and a capacity of 270.
Department of Education's infrastructure director John Fischer said the school still had capacity for more students.
"When additional transportable classrooms are needed they will be provided, with one due to be delivered by the end of this term," he said.
"While there is continued growth in the areas surrounding Caversham Primary School, it will have sufficient accommodation for all students from its local-intake area in the near future," Mr Fischer said.
The fast growing residential estates in Caversham are at the southern end of what the Department of Planning calls the Swan Urban Growth Corridor.
In 2011, this growth corridor had less than 500 residents, but by 2017, its population is predicted to be more than 10,000 residents.
This will include more than 1800 primary school aged children (four to 12 years).
West Swan MLA Rita Saffioti will present a petition to Parliament and raise it directly with the relevant minister in the first week of May.
"(The Department and Government) have not properly prepared or planned for education in this growth corridor."