Chronic lack of investment in school buildings says NEU

The Conservative’s programme is so inadequate that at the current rate of progress it will take a further 361 years to renew the school estate. 

The Government is cutting spending on school buildings by a further £600m in 2020, on top of the £500m cut from this year’s budget. 

As the Guardian story on Sunday, “Revealed: one in six schools in England require urgent repairs”, 3,731 schools are in need of immediate repair and a further 9,872 schools need work in the next 1 – 2 years. 

Both the Labour and Liberal Democrat manifestos commit themselves to modernising existing schools and building enough new capacity. 

Mary Bousted, joint general secretary, National Education Union said, “Government austerity has deprived thousands of children of the opportunity to learn in decent, modern, fit for purpose buildings, instead condemning them to be educated in crumbling and in many cases unsafe premises. We cannot allow this situation to continue - immediate investment is required to bring all schools up to a decent standard’.