Report calls for ‘urgent action’ to address ‘crumbling schools’
I care less about old and slightly run down schools than the availability of education in small rural communities. I am not a personal fan of investing in bricks and mortar at the cost of pushing everyone into big and expensive urban cited buildings. Wonder why RIBA might be in favour of more capital expenditure on schools………..? This article tells us:
The UK’s school building programme is progressing at an “alarmingly slow pace”, the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) has warned today.
In a report that sets out a number of recommendations for the next government, the institution says that “urgent action” is needed to prevent “old, crumbling schools from falling into further disrepair” and to relieve those that are overcrowded.
Of the 29,000 schools in the country, 80 per cent are operating beyond their “shelf life”, according to the report, while more than 75 per cent reportedly contain asbestos. This, it is estimated, amounts to an £8.5 billion backlog of repairs.
The report states that while Labour’s £55bn Building Schools for the Future (BSF) initiative – scrapped by the coalition Government – was based on a “sound premise of initiating a step-change in children’s education” the scale of the project was “underestimated”.
This, the report highlights, led to 231 schools “under or nearly in construction” and a further 1,000 “in the pipeline” when the scheme was ended six years into its 15 year intended time span.