by Auditor General Kim Adair says the province needs to update and improve its school capital planning process to account for the unprecedented growth in student enrolment since the process was created.
Adair says the Department of Education released its first multi-year school capital planning process in 2019 when student numbers were stable.
But she says in the past 10 years, there’s been a 13% increase in province-wide enrolment and a 24% jump in the Halifax Regional Centre for Education.
Adair says the Department has responded to Halifax’s enrollment challenges by spending $162 million on modular and portable classrooms in the last four years to accommodate up to 6,000 students.
She says the school capital planning process needs to be updated to make sure school projects go where they’re needed most.
