A new 14-storey high school will be built in inner Sydney for 1200 students as the government scrambles to meet a surge in enrolments that will require 12 new schools to be built every year.

The new Surry Hills school, to be built on the site of the existing Cleveland Street Intensive English High School, is expected to open in 2020 and is one of five high-rise government schools currently planned for greater Sydney.

Education Minister Rob Stokes said most new schools will involve "multi-storey buildings" amid increasing cost and space pressures.

"Where land is constrained, we'll have to look at going up," Mr Stokes said.