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Search resuls for: "RAAC"


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“It’s been kind of in free fall really,” said Ms. Burness, 47, of how the week has played out. “And how much longer will it be?”By Thursday morning, Ms. Burness and her husband, who both run their own businesses, were juggling parenting duties and their jobs, unable to find specialist child care at short notice. On Friday, the school said classes would resume the following week, but added that some rooms would be inaccessible and adjustments would have to be made. Britain’s Conservative government has faced acute criticism since the announcement last week that more than 100 schools would have to close buildings because of the presence of reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete, or RAAC, a bubbly, lightweight material known to pose a risk of sudden collapse. The crisis intensified after it became clear that senior government officials had ignored repeated warnings about the material, with a former Department for Education official accusing Prime Minister Rishi Sunak of refusing to rebuild more schools while he was chancellor of the Exchequer, despite being told of a “critical risk to life.” (Mr. Sunak said it was “completely and utterly wrong” to hold him responsible for the funding shortfall.)
Persons: , , Burness, Rishi Sunak, Sunak Organizations: Conservative, Department for Education
The "crumbly concrete" was used in hundreds of schools and some have been shut over fears of collapses. The UK government said more than 100 schools faced closure because they contained reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC), a material typically used in roof planks and wall panels. AdvertisementAdvertisementOther structures such as hospitals, theaters, universities and some apartment buildings are also being checked for the concrete. Why was the concrete used? According to the think-tank the Institute for Government, those cuts are linked with schools' RAAC closures.
Persons: Matthew Byatt, RAAC, , Chris Goodier, What's, Keir Starmer, Rishi Sunak's, NAO, Gareth Davies, Rishi Sunak Organizations: Service, Health, Safety, National Audit Office, Guardian, Financial Times, of Structural Engineers, Labour, Loughborough University, Department for Education, Institute for Government, The Times, National Health Service, European Union Locations: Wall, Silicon, Heathrow, Gatwick, Kent, Sweden, London, he's, India
LONDON, Sept 4 (Reuters) - Hundreds more school buildings in England might be crumbling and unsafe, Britain's Education Secretary Gillian Keegan said on Monday after authorities ordered 104 schools to shut buildings with old and weak concrete. The revelations of crumbling school buildings only days before the start of a new term has sparked anger among parents and teachers, representing a new political headache for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak ahead of an election expected next year. Keegan told BBC Radio that schools suspected to have RAAC would be inspected in the next two weeks, adding that "most of them won't have RAAC". When asked if there could be hundreds more schools, she acknowledged that "it could be hundreds". Sunak, meanwhile, said that 95% of the roughly 22,000 schools in England would not be affected.
Persons: Gillian Keegan, Rishi Sunak, Keegan, Sunak, Jonathan Slater, Sachin Ravikumar, Kylie MacLellan, Peter Graff, David Goodman Organizations: BBC Radio, Thomson Locations: England, Britain
LONDON — More than 100 schools across England were ordered to close Thursday because they were built using unsafe concrete, the Department for Education said in a statement Thursday afternoon, a few days before the start of a new school year for most students. The schools were built with reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete, a lightweight concrete material known as RAAC that was used between the 1950s and mid-1990s and has been determined to be prone to failures and crumbling. In all, 104 schools were ordered closed. Some 156 schools were confirmed to have used the lightweight concrete in their buildings, but 52 have put in safety measures to mitigate the risks. That could mean using other buildings for classes, sharing space with other schools or, in some cases, erecting temporary buildings.
Organizations: Department for Education Locations: England
Total: 4