Make-overs considered for run-down schools

Run-down, unpopular schools could get make-overs to improve their image and encourage more parents to send their children there. A Cabinet paper says schools' appearance can influence enrolments and the Education Ministry has been asked to come up with ways to help schools scrub up. The suggestion comes at a time when the government is facing a bill of hundreds of millions of dollars a year to repair and replace old classrooms and build new schools. Our education correspondent John Gerritsen reports.