Mothers demand answers over schools

How is Education Minister Anne Tolley going to provide equal access to learning facilities for Wakatipu children now, when classrooms are bursting at the seams, and what is her long-term plan as those children continue on to high school?

These are questions voiced by new group of concerned Wakatipu mothers who have organised a community meeting for Wednesday to discuss the community's education needs now and in the future.

Lake Hayes Estate residents Kate Smith, Melissa Vining and another mother who declined to be named, and Tucker Beach resident Emily Dennison, all mothers of preschoolers, met on Saturday to "to move our passion to activism" and become a community voice on education matters.

Their initiative was prompted by the Ministry of Education's proposal Remarkables Primary School reduce its home zone to exclude suburban Lake Hayes Estate, Quail Rise Estate, Tucker Beach, Marina Heights and the northern side of Frankton Rd from the start of term two next year.

The ministry's proposal last week stemmed from its concerns of overcrowding in the $17.3 million primary school, only 18 months since the first pupils began attending it.

The so far unnamed group said while their children would all enter the school system soon, enrolment zoning and education issues were important to the entire community.

"There is a need to address the short-term and the long-term education requirements in the Wakatipu," Mrs Smith said.

"We're very aware the problem at Remarkables Primary School is the tip of the iceberg and it would appear the ministry is not taking a longer-term view.

"We don't want to make this emotive; it's about making sure [the ministry] has a strategy," Mrs Smith said.

"It's about how we collectively find a solution."

The mothers said the growing population in the Wakatipu was not news to anyone and it should not be to the Government. However, the ministry appeared to be working from out-of-date population projections. Development was not stopping, they said.

They drew parallels with national efforts to resolve the health crisis in the Wakatipu. The mothers asked why the Ministry of Education could not use the same population information collated by the National Health Board panel for its report to the Southern District Health Board and, by extension, the Ministry of Health.

The meeting will be held in the City Impact Church, in Frankton, on Wednesday at 7pm. Queenstown Lakes Mayor Vanessa van Uden was expected to attend, the group said.