By Burak Bir
LONDON (AA) - The British government confirmed Tuesday that the number of schools at risk of collapsing due to the presence of substandard concrete has risen to 174.
The Department for Education announced in early September that 147 schools were to be closed for reconstruction after close inspection found the presence of reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC), which causes safety risks.
The material is a lightweight, “bubbly” form of concrete, and its risk has been known for the past five years after a school roof in the southeastern city of Kent collapsed in 2018. The incident has raised concerns for the safety of schools, hospitals and other buildings built with the same material between the 1950s and the mid-1990s.
The Department for Education said in a statement that the list of schools at risk of collapsing due to the concrete material has risen by 27 and that part of the mitigation work is completed, with the remainder still underway.
“Schools affected have been supported, and we have been working hard to put in place mitigations, which means 148 settings are offering full-time face-to-face learning to all pupils,” said the statement, adding the department will continue to survey all schools and colleges by the end of the week.
“School and local leaders deserve huge credit for making sure the vast majority of settings with confirmed RAAC are continuing to offer pupils face-to-face learning, including all of the 147 schools initially identified two weeks ago,” said Education Secretary Gillian Keegan.
-Still a lack of clarity and timeframe
The government has established a school rebuilding program and aims to transform 500 schools over the next decade.
Following announcements from Sept. 7 on the safety risks of the concrete material, the National Education Union (NEU) criticized Keegan for failing to answer questions from six education unions in the country.
“There is still a lack of clarity and timeframe from the government on when qualified structural engineers will investigate all schools at risk to assess the extent of the problem and the measures that need to be put in place to rectify the presence of RAAC,” said Daniel Kebede, general secretary of the NEU.
He went on to say that schools should never have been put in this position.
“It is impossible to assess the progress of the Department for Education without answers to these questions,” added Kebede.
According to the department, the government has invested £15 billion ($18.5 billion) since 2015 to keep schools safe and operational.
A report by the National Audit Office (NAO) in June warned that more than 400 schools could potentially be affected by the material’s use in the long term, putting an estimated 700,000 pupils at risk.