About 700,000 children in England are in schools that require major rebuilding or refurbishment works, with a knock-on impact on pupils’ attainment and teacher retention, the national spending watchdog found.
The risk level of school buildings collapsing and causing death or injury has remained at “critical and very likely” since summer 2021, according to a report by the National Audit Office published on Wednesday.
The NAO blamed the use of a lightweight form of concrete, which was used between the 1950s and the mid-1990s and is prone to failure. Its report laid bare the serious challenges facing state schools, as teachers prepare for a fresh round of strikes over pay and conditions next autumn.
The findings underscore the challenge facing Prime Minister Rishi Sunak as he tries to overturn a narrative of decline under his governing Conservative Party, which has been in power for 13 years, before a general election expected in 2024. Keir Starmer’s opposition Labour Party, which holds a formidable lead in opinion polls, has accused the Tories of presiding over years of economic mismanagement leading to the crumbling of public services.
The UK remains in the grip of industrial action, including strikes by teachers. Unions are bracing for further disappointment after Sunak hinted Sunday he could take the unusual step of rejecting recommendations by independent pay review bodies for public sector wage increases if they are too high.
The premier insisted his top priority is tackling soaring inflation, even if that means risking more walkouts by key workers. Pay for experienced teachers has fallen by one fifth in real terms since 2010, according to unions, and many are leaving the profession due to heavy workloads and long hours.
Meanwhile more than a third of England’s school buildings — some 24,000 — are past their estimated initial design life, making them more expensive to maintain with poorer energy efficiency, the NAO found.
A “significant funding shortfall” in recent years contributed to “deterioration across the school estate,” the watchdog said. While the Department for Education had said £7 billion a year was needed for maintaining and rebuilding schools, it only spent an average of £2.3 billion a year between 2016 and 2022.
“It is perfectly clear that the government has made a conscious decision to deprioritize education,” said Julie McCulloch, director of policy at the Association of School and College Leaders union. “The deterioration of the school estate is one of the results of this mindset alongside the worsening situation across the country of severe teacher shortages.”
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