Education leaders have hit out at a ‘North-South divide’ in the state of school buildings after a report highlighted poor conditions in the region’s classrooms.
Last month the National Audit Office (NAO) warned that about 700,000 children in England attend schools requiring major repairs following years of underfunding, with poor conditions directly affecting pupil attainment and teacher retention. Around 24,000 school buildings, or 38% of the total, are currently beyond their estimated design lifespan, the report found.
And though greater levels of need have been identified in the North and the Midlands, official data shows that applications for school improvement funding from those areas are less likely to be approved.
