A school is the beating heart of any rural community - and Premer in NSW's north west is not alone.
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The community of Premer is fighting to have its primary school re-opened after it went into recess at the end of 2018 due a lack of enrolments.
But a Premer community spokesperson Kimberley Campbell said they had 16 students ready to enrol in 2022 with a projection of 20 for the next five years.
"We have gone door to door getting people's opinions on the school, all are in favour of seeing it re-open," Mrs Campbell said.
"It may even attract more families with young children to the region if there is a school within the area and not 50kms plus away."
NSW Department of Education figures show that there are currently 17 schools in recess across the state. Only one school has re-opened in the last five years and that was Pooncarie Public School, which was placed in recess in 2013 and re-opened in 2019.
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Mrs Campbell said currently families were sending their children to Spring Ridge Public School with some children travelling up to a 200 kilometre round trip in the car and on the bus.
She said some children in the area had to repeat kindergarten due to the "physically exhaustion" caused by travel.
"Why should our children have to travel that far when there is a school 17km away from us?" she said.
"The biggest thing is the physical strain it is putting on the children. They are exhausted at the beginning of the week, let alone the end of the week.
"They are not going to take in and learn things when they are tired because of the extra travel."
NSW Education Minister Sarah Mitchell said the education department surveyed the community last year to see if there was interest from local families as to whether Premer Public School should re-open and there was only a small number of responses.
After meeting with Premer parents, she asked the department to distribute another survey to the community, which closed April 23.
"As Minister for Education and a Gunnedah resident I feel very strongly about keeping country schools open and making life as easy as possible for regional families," Ms Mitchell said.
"Once all responses are returned, we will be in a better position to make a decision as to whether or not it is viable to reopen the school."
The schools in recess include: Cabramurra, Collingullie, Doubtful Creek, Euchareena, Jerangle, Macquarie Boys High School, Mingoola, Mullengandra, Murwillumbah South Infants School (closed), Newcastle High School Cooks Hill Campus SSP, Nowendoc , Oxley Island, Rugby, Savernake and Wollar Public School.
