A teachers' group in New South Wales is expressing alarm that the state government is set to use school maintenance funds in replacing unflued gas heaters as two school principals received advisory that delays on scheduled maintenance works should be expected while the government is scrambling for replacement money.

NSW Teacher's Federation president Bob Lipscombe said that nothing new could be said on the issues regarding the heaters but he pointed out that state authorities should not use them as an excuse to renege on their school maintenance obligations.

Mr Lipscombe claimed that teachers have been facing overwhelming challenges in trying to convince the government to remove the heaters as he made appeals that state "put in the necessary financial measures to ensure they can be removed in a way that doesn't impact on other essential maintenance in our schools."

He underscored the fact that removing the unflued gas heater is a crucial part in maintaining schools in NSW so its must be carried out without any delays, stressing that "its very important to maintain our schools in good condition and you can't do that if you abandon maintenance programs."

On its part, the state government admitted that some delays would mar the scheduled maintenance works on a number of schools being maintained by the state, blaming the glitch in its efforts to search for funds on the committed $15 million replacements of every unflued gas heaters in state-run schools.

It gave assurance though that while the delays may have caused some form of inconveniences for a number of schools, a great number of maintenance works would still go ahead as planned.

However, opposition spokesman Brad Hazzard said that the state's response still fell short of what should be expected from them as he emphasised that the government "should have had enough foresight and vision to make sure there were enough funds to address a fundamental health need in our schools, but also to provide the maintenance needed for our schools."