Documents obtained by Fairfax Media under freedom-of-information laws listed Forest Hill Public, North Wagga Public and Hanwood Public as three of the state’s 180 overcrowded schools.

Forest Hill saw its maximum enrolment number exceeded by 11 per cent, followed by North Wagga which was 10 per cent over and Hanwood at 9 per cent. 

North Wagga parent and former Labor election candidate Tim Kurylowicz said the number of full and near-full Riverina schools presented a huge problem for the region’s future. 

“What is really clear is that too many schools in our region, all sorts of country schools, are very close to their capacities,” he said. 

“It’s extremely troubling that we’re already seeing a school like North Wagga overcrowded because it makes you worry about what will happen in the next ten years when these neighbouring suburbs expand.

“This should be sounding alarm bells that our schools’ capacities need to be expanded.”

It comes after the Department of Education claimed many principals operating over capacity were failing to build new classrooms.

But in a budget estimates hearing on Monday, Education Minister Adrian Piccoli denied that schoolchildren had been crammed in like “battery hens”. 

"We have announced in this year's budget an investment of an additional billion dollars [in the school system]," Mr Piccoli said.

He said that when the Coalition government came to power, enrolments had flat lined but they have since seen "unprecedented" growth.

Country Organiser of the NSW Teachers Federation Brett Bertalli refuted claims the $1 billion would relieve the classroom overcrowding crisis. 

“Public school enrolments are projected to increase by 23 per cent over the next 15 years,” he said. 

“While the state government is spending an extra $1 billion over the next four years on building new schools and classrooms, this is less than half of what the Department of Education says is needed.

“New roads and railways are important, but so are our public schools.”