County Durham Labour branded the government “a chaos engine”, as it was engulfed in yet another crisis.
With 52 English schools at risk of collapse due to the dangers posed by reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC), Schools Minister Nick Gibb admitted that almost 100 others have been told to close areas near to concrete that has been deemed dangerous.
Cllr Stacey Deinali, Labour’s Shadow Portfolio Holder for Families, hit out at the lack of information from the Government, with the start of the new school year just days away.
“How on earth are we in yet another government-caused crisis that once again impacts most upon families and young people?” said Cllr Deinali. “Three days from the start of the new academic year and suddenly we hear some of our schools may be unsafe for occupation, and to further compound that the government won’t tell us which schools they are!”
County Durham Labour is demanding the Tory-led Coalition take immediate action. It has written to the leadership calling on it to write to the Secretary of State to find out if county schools are impacted and what action is being taking to mitigate this latest crisis.
Cllr Deinali added:
“The Coalition must act now to find out if we have any affected schools, what is being done to support them and how the government intends to address the issue of our decrepit school buildings.
“Our young people have been repeatedly let down by this government, from cancelling Labour’s revolutionary Building Schools for the Future programme to its reviled shake up of the results marking system, from fudging pandemic closure decisions to the debacle around GCSE and A-Level results in 2020. It’s no surprise archaic Tory austerity has resulted in children being taught in unsafe buildings that may collapse at any moment. This government doesn’t care about us, it doesn’t care about young people and it certainly doesn’t seem to care much about the education system outside of Eaton and Harrow.”
Secrecy around the schools issue is causing huge concern – Labour is demanding that the Coalition running the County Council demand the government:
- Immediately publish the full list of schools involved.
- Provide a full explanation as to why it has taken until now to act, despite warnings from the LGA, and Labour Party years ago.
- Give clear and unequivocal guarantee to parents in County Durham that ALL schools have been properly assessed and that children are not at risk.
Where schools close, it will mean more time out of the classroom for youngsters who spent months remote learning during Covid and teaching strikes, with more childcare juggling and home schooling for parents and families.
County Durham Labour Leader, Cllr Carl Marshall, said:
“The government is a chaos engine, spiralling further out of control with each self-imposed crisis.
“The last Labour government was delivering a programme that would have revolutionised education across the country, replacing hundreds of ailing school buildings, but this was one of the first projects cancelled in the name of austerity…and nothing has been done since.
“We are all sinking under Tory rule. In the last few years, we have endured a pandemic, doctor and nurse strikes, a refusal to feed hungry school children, massive rises in fuel costs, even higher rises in home energy costs, a huge leap in interest rates, mass food poverty, mass child poverty, the introduction of the cruel Universal Credit system, teacher strikes, a mental health crisis – and all delivered against the backdrop of a Brexit disaster, sleazy multi-million PPE deals with pals and lies being told in Parliament.
“We must demand change. In County Durham and in England. Under the Tories the rich are getting richer while the poor get poorer and all the while our children suffer the consequences – that must stop!”