Pupils pressured to take ‘classes in portacabins’ as harmful buildings shut

Education minister Gillian Keegan stated a “inventory of portacabins” had been made ready to potentially replace dangerous crumbling concrete classrooms for children.

The under-pressure minister told Kay Burley on Sky News this morning: “We have eight structural surveying firms, who go in and do the surveys.

“We have three portacabin providers, so we’ve laid up a stock of portacabins, so that people can be prepared quickly to do that if they need temporary accommodation.

“We’ve also looked at the propping company, so we have a propping company that’s nationwide, the Department of Education will pay for all of that.”

Kay Burley challenged the minister on how the repair work would be funded, and if it was coming out of existing school budgets. Ms Keegan said the Department for Education would fund all “mitigation works”.

She continued, saying “most schools will not have to close” and that the “vast majority of children will be going back today”.

Concerns about Raac – a lightweight concrete used up until the mid-1990s – in public buildings were raised in 2018, prompting accusations that ministers have failed to act quick enough.

Experts have warned that the risks may extend beyond schools to hospitals, court buildings and prisons, where the material is present.

Ms Keegan conceded there will be some schools “with quite extensive Raac” and that they “may close so that we can put temporary accommodation in place”.

She stated: “Many colleges are both on the lookout for various lodging, if they’re in a multi-academy belief, or inside a neighborhood authority, or shifting to a different classroom in the event that they’ve bought spare classroom.

“If it’s throughout the entire college then that will get tougher, so what we’re doing proper now’s we’ve got assigned a caseworker for every one of many colleges, who’re working with the college to determine what the mitigation plans are. We wish to minimise disruption to kids’s training.”

The Education Secretary informed BBC Breakfast later that there have been “104 (schools) that are not mitigated that are being mitigated right now”.

Their standing modified to essential after an incident in August the place a panel fell from a roof that had beforehand been assessed as non-critical, she stated.

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt moved to reassure dad and mom the Government would “spend what it takes” to deal with the issue, however Treasury sources later stated cash for repairs would come from the Department for Education’s (DfE) current capital finances.

Shadow training secretary Bridget Phillipson stated “ministers need to get a grip” and that the Department for Education was in “complete chaos”.