Nick Gibb, the long-serving Conservative schools minister, is right that safety is the most important consideration when deciding whether to close school buildings deemed to be dangerous. The public is all too familiar, post-Grenfell, with the horrific consequences that can follow from ignoring warnings that buildings are structurally unsound. But the announcement that more than 100 schools in England will not reopen next week, due to the possibility of concrete ceilings falling in, is enormously troubling. Not only will this last-minute decision disrupt thousands of children’s education, with knock-on effects on parents and carers, it also points to the extent of the harm caused by the Conservatives’ refusal to invest in the nation’s schooling.
Details remain murky. The government has so far refused to reveal a full list of affected schools, although Essex is known to be the worst-hit county. Mr Gibb’s explanation for the timing is that surveyors have been working over the summer, with findings delivered as recently as last week. The material under scrutiny is reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC), which was widely used in schools, and some other public buildings, between the 1950s and mid-1990s. Previously, only RAAC judged by experts to be in “critical condition” was regarded as a threat – with 52 schools affected. But ministers have been forced to adopt a more conservative position after the recent collapse of a beam in a building previously thought to be safe.
