After being instructed to evacuate buildings made of a concrete type that is prone to collapsing, more than 100 schools in England are rushing to prepare plans.
According to BBC, the administration issued the directive just days before the start of the autumn semester.
Because of the problem, some students have already been informed that they would be attending classes online, in makeshift classrooms, or at alternate schools.
The Labour Party has criticised the administration for not announcing when a list of the impacted schools would be released.
Bridget Phillipson, the shadow education secretary, asked ministers to “come clean with parents and set out the full scale of the challenge that we’re facing” because Labour had not seen the entire list.
Gillian Keegan, the secretary of education, said impacted schools will speak with parents personally on Thursday, adding, “If you don’t hear, don’t worry.”
Schools that were discovered to have structures made of reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) were instructed to implement safety measures, which may include supporting ceilings.
While such protections are put in place, a “minority” will need to “either fully or partially relocate” to alternative housing, according to the Department for Education (DfE).
The DfE has not, however, provided a timetable for updating the content, which was utilised until the mid-1990s.
The government was taking a “cautious approach,” Ms. Keegan reportedly remarked, and “over the summer a couple of cases have given us cause for concern.”
At Willowbrook Mead Primary in Leicester, where plans have been made for younger students to attend two separate schools and older students to use online learning, the head teacher said in a letter to parents, “I appreciate that the timing is far from ideal.”
The DfE stated on Thursday that any space or location in schools, colleges, or nurseries with proven RAAC should no longer be available without “mitigations” being put in place. This particular institution is one of several that were affected.
This happened after the government learned of a number of instances in which RAAC abruptly failed, not just in school buildings but also elsewhere.
The proposal, according to Ms. Keegan’s department, will “minimise the impact on student learning and give schools the right funding and support they need to put mitigations in place to deal with RAAC,” she added.
Teachers’ unions, meanwhile, have attacked the DfE for announcing the decision so close to the start of the school year.
The fact that 104 schools are learning that part or all of their facilities are dangerous and cannot be utilised just a few days before the start of the semester is “absolutely disgraceful” and “a sign of gross government incompetence,” according to National Education Union national secretary Daniel Kebede.
