Sydney Schools Face Late Summer Without Air Conditioners

Schools across New South Wales are seeing temperatures soar above 30 degrees Celsius as installations of air conditioners are delayed for up to seven years.

President of Parents and Citizens, Lisa Hamilton is mother to two children attending Marrickville West primary school, and says parents are concerned about the wellbeing of students and teachers alike.

“Feedback from parents and children is that the absence of air-conditioning in classrooms makes it far more difficult for children to concentrate once outside temperatures reach 28 degrees plus,” she told the ABC.

“My personal experience is of an excellent year one teacher on a 30-degree day turning off all the lights when the children were hot and tired and then putting on an educational video because the children were just exhausted.”

Funding for air conditioners at Marrickville West primary school was approved in 2018- the air conditioner units themselves have been delivered to the school, but won’t be installed until winter.

“This is upsetting for our community as we were told it would be connected this summer,” said Hamilton, who emphasised the fault lay with the government rather than the school administration.

Stories are similar at other schools around Sydney, with Dulwich Hill School of Visual Arts and Design and Sydney Boys High School in Moore Park also tackling hot classrooms.

Learning outcomes affected

James Smallcombe, a researcher from the heat and health research centre at the University of Sydney, says that students’ learning becomes impacted when classroom temperatures go above 28 or 29C.

“Some of the key kinds of issues we would expect is that their cognitive abilities might begin to be be impaired, which might affect things like their concentration or their ability to retain information.”

The department of education says that in the case of Marrickville West, installation of the units was unable to be completed after the original contractors went into administration, with the work having to be retendered.

Installation is expected to be complete by late 2025.

Air conditioning has been installed in more than 2,324 classrooms and libraries across 152 NSW public schools under the Minns government as part of the .