Top Tory would let own family be taught in crumbling classroom as schools close
A Government minister has said he would be happy for his nieces and nephews to sit in a classroom under a propped-up ceiling amid fears over schools crumbling.
Frontbencher Nick Gibb, Rishi Sunak's schools minister, claimed he would have no qualms about his young relatives being taught in a school with beams used to reinforced crumbling concrete. He made the comments after the Department for Education (DfE) said more than 100 schools would have to fully and partially close.
Experts are fearful that reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) - which was used in public buildings between the 1960s and 1990s - is no longer safe, putting buildings at risk of collapse. More than 150 schools are currently known to have been at least partly built using RAAC.
Mr Gibb was challenged by LBC presenter Nick Ferrari, who asked him this morning: " In all honesty, Nick, would you be happy with your nieces and nephews sitting in a classroom under propped-up RSJ?" The Tory minister responded: " Yes… because we're taking a very precautionary approach. Some say we're being overcautious in dealing with this, but the advice is that you can prop up these beams."
Nick Gibb said some feel the Government is being 'overcautious'But he stressed that in the most serious cases, rooms would be put out of use altogether. Mr Gibb stated: "Where they are in a more dangerous condition, of course, we take that room out of it altogether. And that's the work that's happening with a caseworker, with support from the department in those 156 schools and we continue to work to identify RAAC throughout the school system."
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Labour Shadow Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson fumed: “Children sat underneath steel girders to protect them from the ceiling falling in: the defining image of thirteen years of a Conservative-run education system. You can’t give children a first class education in second rate buildings. The next Labour government will ensure schools are fit for purpose and children are safe”
The sudden announcement that 104 schools will be fully or partially shut, just days before the start of term, has piled misery on parents now facing uncertainty over whether their child can go back. But Mr Gibb claimed the Government is "on top of" the issue. So far the DfE has resisted calls to release a full list of schools facing closure.
The minister said: "There's no country in the world where you can be as assured as in this country, that you have a government that is on top of this issue and is doing everything to identify where RAAC is and to take action when we think it is unsafe for pupils. Safety of pupils and staff is our prime concern."
On Thursday official guidance was issued to schools, school nurseries and colleges - which have been told they will have to fund their own emergency accommodation. The DfE said it contacted the 104 more schools in the wake of analysis of new cases after 52 of the 156 educational settings containing the concrete took protective steps so far this year.
The department said a "minority" will need to "either fully or partially relocate" to alternative accommodation while safety measures are installed. Space in nearby schools, community centres or in an "empty local office building" was recommended for the "first few weeks" while buildings are secured with structural supports.
Schools were told moving to pandemic-style remote education should only be considered as a "last resort and for a short period".
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