NEW data suggests six Mornington electorate state schools are in below average condition, but the state government says the information is outdated and doesn’t reflect the current conditions.
Following a two-year legal battle, the state Opposition secured a condition assessment score for Victorian government schools under Freedom of Information.
The data revealed that Mornington Secondary College had a “poor” condition score rating of 3.13 while Mount Eliza Secondary College, Mornington Park Primary School, Benton Junior College, Kunyung Primary School and Mount Martha Primary School scored a condition below the statewide average (3.48), ranging from 3.29 (very close to poor condition) through to 3.45.
School condition assessment scores range from zero to five and consider outstanding maintenance issues, defects and damage to property across school buildings, grounds and other infrastructure.
Mornington MP Chris Crewther said, “Families in the Mornington electorate expect their local schools to be safe, well-maintained places for children to learn”.
“These figures show too many students are being let down by a government that has mismanaged its priorities and failed to invest in basic school infrastructure,” he said.
“School infrastructure investment should be first and foremost prioritised according to need, based on their condition, as against political or other factors.”
However, an Education Department spokesperson said the condition scores dated back to 2023 and “do not reflect the current condition of many schools”.
“Upon receiving their condition scores, the Department of Education works directly with the schools to identify defects, prioritise them and then provide funding, guidance and support to resolve them to ensure that schools remain safe and in good condition,” the spokesperson said.
“Over 98 per cent of aggregated scores are fair or better.”
According to the government, a school condition number was not a full assessment of a school as a whole but rather an “aggregate of individual element scores, which becomes outdated almost immediately as maintenance is undertaken”.
It also noted each government school undergoes a rolling facilities evaluation (RFE) inspection at least once every five years and schools are given a condition score to reflect the state of their buildings and grounds and are given support by the department to rectify the condition scores.
“School condition scores become out-of-date when works occur to rectify identified issues. Many factors go into the calculation of the scores and their purpose, that they are done over a rolling five-year timeframe and that the score is only one factor taken into account in providing funding to schools,” the government said in a statement
Introduced in 2018 the RFE was part of a “comprehensive reform” of a school asset management system, which also included a new IT system and associated support teams to support schools with their asset management role, as well significant additional funding for maintenance.
“Our annual maintenance and compliance budget has grown to over $600m for 2026 – a nearly six-fold increase since 2014-15,” the spokesperson said.
“This includes more than $340m provided directly to government schools through Student Resource Package allocations, alongside programs targeted to specific upgrade and maintenance needs.”
However, the Opposition said Victorian schools scores followed the government’s failure to deliver promised upgrades to 89 schools by November 2026 and a “secret $2.4b cut to education funding in the 2024-25 State Budget”.
Education Shadow Minister Brad Rowswell said, “With hundreds of schools in poor condition, billions of dollars of funding cuts and a persistent teacher shortage crisis, Labor’s claim that Victoria is ‘the education state’ is in tatters”.
First published in the Mornington News – 13 January 2026