Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson said ‘walls and ceilings made from dangerous concrete held up by steel props, shabby classrooms that tell children they simply don’t matter’
Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson will today pledge to strip crumbling concrete from all schools and colleges by the next election.
Thousands of children are still learning in buildings riddled with reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC), two years on from the discovery of the dangerous material in schools across England.
The Mirror revealed in 2023 that officials had contacted around 100 education settings before the start of the autumn term to tell them to immediately close affected buildings unless safety measures are in place.
The Government pledged funding to remove the material, after it caused three sudden roof collapses in 2023.
But work is still ongoing to strip the dodgy material from schools.
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Writing in the Mirror, she said: “Opportunity should be for every child, in every school, in every part of the country.
“But walk into too many schools today and you’ll see opportunity literally crumbling.
“Walls and ceilings made from dangerous concrete held up by steel props, shabby classrooms that tell children they simply don’t matter.
“This is the Tories’ legacy in education. Fixing it will be Labour’s.”
She went on: “That’s why, today, I’m setting out exactly how we make it right.
“By the end of this Parliament, every single school and college in England that isn’t being fully or substantially rebuilt will be RAAC-free.
“And for those schools needing to be rebuilt, every project will be in some phase of delivery.”
She added: “Every child walking into school should see possibility, not peeling paint.
“That’s our plan for national renewal in action – a government that values them enough to give them classrooms they can be proud of.”
Some 237 schools and colleges were found to have crumbling concrete, out of around 22,000 in England.
Today, the Department for Education confirmed that 62 have had RAAC permanently removed.