Gillian Keegan to make college go to amid stress over crumbling concrete disaster
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nder-pressure Education Secretary Gillian Keegan is visiting a faculty affected by the crumbling concrete disaster as 1000’s of pupils have been instructed to remain at residence.
The Cabinet minister can be assembly college leaders and MPs in Essex, one of many areas worst hit by bolstered autoclaved aerated concrete (Raac), on Thursday.
She can be visiting a faculty with mitigations in place, relatively than a kind of pressured to shut utterly simply as college students ready to return for the brand new college yr.
Ms Keegan ordered greater than 100 faculties and faculties to make both full or partial closures final week after she acquired new proof over the concrete’s collapse danger.
She has provoked anger after she was caught on digital camera asking why no-one says “you’ve done a f****** good job” whereas “everyone else has sat on their arse and done nothing”.
The Education Secretary just isn’t anticipated to do any media on the college go to.
A listing printed by the Department for Education (DfE) reveals 147 faculties have been affected to this point by Raac, with 19 pressured to delay the beginning of time period.
Four have needed to change to distant studying for all college students, and an extra 20 have needed to supply some distant studying.
Six main unions representing college employees have written to Ms Keegan demanding she units out what number of faculties suspect having Raac however are but to have been investigated or surveyed.
We have taken a proactive and cautious response. But I feel we must always do this. We’re speaking about youngsters and youngsters’s security going to varsities
With the National Education Union, Unison and the National Association of Head Teachers among the many signatories, they’ve additionally demanded to know the deadline for clearing all faculties of the damaging concrete.
They worry the extent of knowledge from the DfE to this point might not “reflect the full extent of the problem”.
Ministers have sought to stage some blame for a delay in getting the total data collectively on college leaders.
Ms Keegan instructed college chiefs on Tuesday but to reply to a survey on the doable presence of Raac to “get off their backsides” and reply.
Science Secretary Michelle Donelan defended her Cabinet colleague on Thursday, rejecting any suggestion a very cautious strategy had opened a “Pandora’s box” for different departments with Raac-affected buildings.
“No, absolutely not. We have taken a proactive and cautious response. But I think we should do that. We’re talking about children and children’s safety going to schools. It would be wrong if we did anything but,” she instructed LBC.