More than 100 schools in England ordered to close buildings over faulty concrete

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

More than 100 schools across England were ordered to close buildings Thursday because they were constructed using unsafe concrete, the Department for Education said in a statement Thursday afternoon, a few days before the start of a new school year for most students.

The affected buildings contain reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete, or RAAC, a lightweight concrete material that was used between the 1950s and mid-1990s and has been determined to be prone to failures and crumbling.

In all, 104 schools were ordered to close buildings. The concerns about the concrete have been known for years, and schools had been told to prepare for the possibility that evacuations would be necessary at some point. One hundred fifty-six schools were confirmed to have used the lightweight material in their buildings, but 52 have put in safety measures to mitigate the risks.

The government said it would work with local authorities on “individual solutions” for the affected schools. That could mean using other buildings for classes, sharing space with other schools or, in some cases, erecting temporary buildings. Online classes are a last resort, the government said.

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

“Nothing is more important than making sure children and staff are safe in schools and colleges,” Keegan said, adding that was why the government chose to take action at the start of the school year. “We must take a cautious approach because that is the right thing to do for both pupils and staff.”

She noted the government was “working hard to make sure any disruption to education is kept to a minimum” and it will fund the repairs.

An elementary school in southeastern England where a roof collapsed in 2018 was later found to have used RAAC in its building. The collapse of the roof, which contained RAAC, happened on a weekend and no one was hurt, but it raised the alarm about the potential for the material to be found in more schools. A subsequent 2019 safety alert also raised concerns. This year, education unions demanded the government address the issue.

At the end of July, the National Audit Office, Britain’s independent public spending watchdog, released a report on the sustainability of school buildings across England and noted that “700,000 pupils are learning in schools requiring major rebuilding or refurbishment.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.