Education unions have called for urgent clarity on the scale of the reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) crisis after a further 43 schools were added to the list of affected institutions on Thursday.
It brings the total number of schools in England where RAAC has been identified to 214, with thousands more pupils across the country facing disrupted learning.
Essex is by far the worst-affected local authority, with 63 schools in the region currently on the RAAC list after a further six were added on Thursday.
The National Education Union (NEU), the UK’s largest teaching union, accused the Government of failing to get a grip on the crisis after it published the latest statistics two weeks later than planned. The Department for Education (DfE) promised to provide an updated list of affected schools every fortnight, but the previous update was a month ago.
Daniel Kebede, the recently-appointed general secretary of the NEU, said: “The number of schools with RAAC continues to rise, and we are nowhere near the conclusion of this saga. Parents and the wider public need reassurance that the Department for Education have this problem under control.
“Their reluctance to publish on time speaks volumes, demonstrating that there is a failure at the heart of Government to take seriously the various crises facing education.”
Mr Kebede added that it “should not have to fall to the NEU to chase the DfE for information they pledged to regularly provide,” and that he was “deeply concerned” that urgent questions it directed at the DfE at the beginning of September “have still not been answered”.
The DfE has still not provided a figure for the number of schools that could contain RAAC. The department sent out surveys to more than 15,000 schools across England this year asking them to self-report whether their buildings contained the material.
RAAC is a lightweight concrete which was commonly used in construction between the 50s and mid-90s, but is now decaying and has been deemed unsafe.
Baroness Barran, the Minister for Schools Systems, said during an Education Select Committee last month that the “vast majority” had responded, but the DfE was yet to count the number of schools that had replied saying they “don’t know” whether they contain RAAC.
“We’re going through those at the moment and I’m not in a position to be able to give you a number on that,” she said.
It means pupils in thousands more schools across the country could be being taught in classrooms containing dangerous RAAC.
Parents in schools identified as containing RAAC have told i of their fury over their children being forced to return to remote learning for some of their classes.
Pupils in most year groups at St Leonard’s Catholic School in Durham were forced to return to online learning for the bulk of their lessons last month after after RAAC was found in buildings across the site.
i reported last month that children were being taught on Microsoft Teams in groups of up to 200, and that on the occasional days that they were allowed to attend school in-person, students were taught in sports halls and corridors with clipboards on their knees.
Some face to face learning has now returned, parents say, but some lessons are being taught at the University of Durham campus. St Leonard’s has been approached for comment.
Almost 250 temporary classrooms have been ordered to help schools across England affected by the crisis, though the figure is expected to rise as more schools are added to the RAAC list.
Bridget Phillipson, the shadow Education Secretary, said: “The drip, drip of schools being added to the RAAC list is yet more evidence of chaos from a Tory Government that has no grip on the extent of crumbling school buildings.
“Parents, children and school staff need urgent reassurance and answers on the steps being taken to support schools.”
Paul Whiteman, general secretary at school leaders’ union NAHT, said: “This rise in the number of affected schools sadly comes as no surprise, but the disruption this will cause for even more pupils, parents and staff members is a real concern.
“Many schools are still waiting for temporary classrooms and buildings to be put in place, with some members telling us that they are not expecting them to be ready for more than six weeks.
“Plans for rebuilding and for schools to return ‘to normal’ are even more nebulous – school leaders are unsure how long ‘temporary’ arrangements will last and are telling us they are unsustainable in the long-term.”
Gillian Keegan, the Education Secretary, said: “I want to reassure pupils, parents and staff that this Government is doing whatever it takes to support our schools and colleges in responding to RAAC and minimise disruption to education.
“The Government is funding longer-term refurbishment or rebuilding projects to address the presence of RAAC in schools. Schools and colleges will either be offered capital grants to fund refurbishment work to permanently remove RAAC, or rebuilding projects where these are needed, including through the School Rebuilding Programme. We are working closely with responsible bodies to assess what the right solution is for each case.”
