England orders more than 100 schools to close buildings over faulty concrete

The concerns about concrete were known for years and the schools were told to be prepared for evacuation if necessary at some point

Days before start of new school year, the Department of Education in England ordered more than 100 schools to close buildings because they were constructed using unsafe concrete.

The concerns about concrete were known for years and the schools were told to be prepared for evacuation if necessary at some point. In total, 156 schools were confirmed to have lightweight material in their buildings but 52 have put safety measures to mitigate the risks.

Now, 104 schools are ordered to close buildings. The affected buildings contain reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete, a lightweight concrete material known as RAAC, used between 1950s and mid-1990s and is prone to crumbling.

The government plans to work with local authorities on individual solutions like using other buildings, sharing space, erecting temporary buildings or even online classes to keep the functioning of these schools.

England’s education secretary, Gillian Keegan, said the government was trying to be vigilant for the safety of students and staff.K

Keegan assured that government is trying to be vigilant for the safety of students and staffs. She said, “The government is working hard to make sure any disruption to education is kept to a minimum and it will fund the repairs."

She in response to why government is taking action now said, “Nothing is more important than making sure children and staff are safe in schools and colleges. We must take a cautious approach because that is the right thing to do for both pupils and staff.”

In 2018, a roof of an elementary school in south eastern England was found to have collapsed due to RAAC. This is incident raised alarm about such material used in other schools. Another safety alert raised in 2019 led to education unions demanding government’s attention to these issues.

The National Audit Office, in July, had released a report on sustainability of school buildings across England noting that 700,000 pupils are learning in schools requiring major rebuilding or refurbishment.

The report noted that, since 2021, the Department for Education has assessed “the risk of school building failure or collapse as critical and very likely, but it has not been able to reduce this risk.”

The Department for Education on August 31 said that they have been proactively monitoring the confirmed cases and advised that a vast majority of schools were unaffected and children should attend as normal when classes begin in September unless parents are notified directly.

There are speculations that the concrete risks, however, are not new. In fact, opposition labour lawmaker, Bridget Phillipson, Has claimed that government had known about the risks but waited until now to inform the schools of the closing, disrupting children’s education.

She said it is the responsibility of the education secretary to inform parents how many schools are affected and whether their children are safe at school.

While schools are run and maintained by local authorities, the Department for Education oversees the broader system in England. There are some 21,600 state schools in England, educating 8.4 million students, according to government figures, so the number of schools affected by the closures is relatively small.

These failures could be disruptive as the school year is set to begin next week for most children.

While the government set aside additional funding for education allocating an extra £7.1 billion for schools in England through the end of 2023 increasing spending per pupil, it has dropped fell by 9 percent between 2009-2019 and 2019-2020, as estimated by Institute for Fiscal Studies.

The rising costs has affected the drop in funding for schools significantly in the recent years. The spending per pupil remains 1 to 2 percent lower than it was in 2009-2010.

Daniel Kebede, the general secretary of the National Education Union, said that the closures would cause massive disruption to the education of thousands of children and huge inconvenience to school leaders.

“It is absolutely disgraceful — and a sign of gross government incompetence — that a few days before the start of term, 104 schools are finding out that some or all of their buildings are unsafe and cannot be used,” he said.