IN HER passionate speech on the evils of Thatcherism on the death of that prime minister, the late Glenda Jackson described the impact of over a decade of Tory rule on the nation’s classrooms in the early 1990s.
“The plaster on our classroom walls was kept in place by pupils’ art work and miles and miles of sellotape. Our school libraries were dominated by empty shelves ... the books that were there were held together by the ubiquitous sellotape and off-cuts from teachers’ wallpaper...”
News that over 100 schools — more may be in the pipeline — are being told just days before the start of the autumn term that they have to close buildings for safety reasons points to the results of a similar period of Conservative neglect.
The National Education Union’s new general secretary Daniel Kebede slams the incompetence behind this “eleventh-hour” demand of schools, which together with local authorities must scramble to make alternative arrangements for thousands of pupils.
There is no excuse for such tardiness. The National Audit Office (NAO) warned in June that nearly one in 10 English pupils was at a school requiring rebuilding or refurbishment.
Local authorities were sounding the alarm over presence of the building material — reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete, or Raac — now assessed to pose a risk to the integrity of hundreds of school buildings (and “imminent risk of collapse” to over 50, according to Schools Minister Nick Gibb) back in 2018, while the material’s known 30-year lifespan should have made timely works foreseeable.
Even now, exactly which schools are at risk is not being announced, continuing a pattern of government secrecy. The year began with wrangling in the Commons over the Tories delaying publication of the Buildings Conditions Survey, which had concluded some school buildings in use posed a “threat to life.”
What are ministers afraid of? Perhaps a public spotlight on the appalling consequences of so-called “austerity.”
The NAO report was clear: “Following years of underinvestment, the estate’s overall condition is declining.”
In January an official briefing to the House of Commons Library found that capital spending on schools had fallen 37 per cent since the 2009-10 fiscal year — 50 per cent when adjusted for inflation.
The Lib Dems have joined the chorus of outrage at the crumbling school estate, but the course was set and much of the damage done when they sat in coalition with the Conservatives — the Building Schools for the Future programme was ditched in 2010, so rapidly that over 700 schools saw agreed rebuilding projects scrapped.
This mess is the government’s fault and it must immediately commit to covering all the costs imposed on schools and councils by what is effectively a last-minute declaration of emergency. As the NEU notes, initial guidance sent out on Thursday indicated schools would be required to cover additional expenses including “rental costs for emergency or temporary accommodation ... or additional transport costs,” something ministers backtracked on within 24 hours.
But Labour must not be allowed to reprise its “13 years of Tory failure” refrain without committing to fixing the problem.
Croydon North MP Steve Reed says on their watch “the fabric of our public sector is literally crumbling.”
But what will Labour do about it? Tony Blair’s education policies were mixed, but education spending did rise at more than twice the rate under Labour as under the Tories from 1979-97 (3.9 per cent a year from 1997-2010 on average, compared to 1.5 per cent under Thatcher and Major).
Repairing the impact of austerity requires investment, but shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves says she will stick to Tory spending plans and will not raise public spending.
As we gear up for the TUC in Liverpool in a week’s time, unions should be clear-eyed about how unacceptable that is in a country crying out for investment.
