The crumbling concrete crisis will be resolved “long before Christmas”, the Education Minister said this morning.
Nick Gibb said he hoped the affected schools were safe or alternative accommodation could be found quickly, with classes likely to only be disrupted for a few days.
Asked if the overall situation would be resolved by the end of this school term, Mr Gibb told LBC Radio: “What we are doing is sending a caseworker to every school where we know there are Raac. They are working right now with those schools.
“We know that in the 52 schools that we have already dispatched and are working on this year, children were only out of school for an average of six days.
“So alternative housing has been found, mitigation, shoring, whatever, it’s all happened in those 52 schools. I expect the same to happen in the remaining 104 schools, where we are now being more cautious on Raac, which was identified as non-critical. And I suspect that it will all be sorted out long before Christmas.”
So far, some 156 schools have been identified that have reinforced and autoclaved aerated concrete (Raac). Gibb said he expected that number to rise as more schools responded to a government questionnaire on the subject.
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