The RAAC scandal: symbolic of Britain's crumbling public estate?
express.co.uk
Days before the first day of the new school year, the Government has closed 147 schools across the country due to fears of their collapse. This crisis is due to unsafe building materials being used in Britain’s schools, specifically reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete, or ‘RAAC’. Having so recently experienced online learning during the pandemic, a return to lessons over Zoom or Teams is not ideal. Having a functioning education system is a hallmark of a developed country, and in Britain we should aspire not merely to functioning but to excellence in our educational standards. However, seeing as nearly 150 schools are shut for literally nearly falling down, this belies the belief that our system is effectively working. So, what does the RAAC crisis mean for Britain’s education system, and more widely for its public infrastructure?
The fact that schools with RAAC are at risk of collapse seems to be a uniquely British problem; as commentators and experts have pointed out, other countries that have used RAAC do not seem to have the same issues. Fouad H. Fouad, a construction expert, has explained to the Financial Times that panels of concrete appeared to be cut at the wrong place, including at critical reinforcement points. He also noted that, in others, reinforcement was missing or not sealed properly to keep out water. This seems to suggest that RAAC itself is not necessarily the risk, but rather Britain’s use of it is.
The RAAC crisis should not have blindsided the Government; the issue has deep roots, going back to the 2010 Coalition. Michael Gove, then Education Secretary, admitted in 2016 that he regretted cutting Gordon Brown’s £55 billion school building programme as part of the austerity budget. This goes beyond the education system and extends right up to the present, as Rishi Sunak, when Chancellor, reportedly blocked the rebuilding of hospitals with RAAC in 2020. Clearly, this issue has extensive ramifications for Britain’s wider public estate.
The RAAC episode is symbolic of hugely underfunded state education sector. Since 2010, funding cuts for the state education sector have resulted in state schools struggling to cope with a rising demand for teaching, and now their physical presence is manifesting signs of this stress. This latest scandal is perhaps a symbol of the crumbling, now literally, state education sector. Furthermore, this also extrapolates to Britain’s wider underfunded public infrastructure; thirteen years of cuts to public funding have given the country collapsing schools, a struggling NHS, and rising costs of living.
The Labour Party has announced plans to end the charitable status long enjoyed by Britain’s private schools, closing a tax loophole that could provide millions of pounds for the state education sector. This funding could be diverted to urgently repair Britain’s 147 schools at risk of collapse, and would help to bridge the gap between the private and public education systems.
Why, though, should the corporate world care about the RAAC crisis? Notwithstanding the simple fact that education is a fundamental human right, as enshrined in Article 26 of the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and that every child deserves one, there are reasons to be concerned. The children in schools at this moment (or not, regarding those 147closed schools) are the future leaders of this country. They are the next politicians, doctors, lawyers, artists, and corporate business leaders. Their education is fundamental to the future success of the corporate sector, and recruiters and current leaders alike should be concerned that their future talent is currently sitting at home whilst their schools are being rebuilt.
We need to ensure that all children in this country receive at the very least a solid education, but even this should be a baseline; Britain should aspire to the highest educational standards, and this cannot be achieved in schools that are literally crumbling. The young people educated in the state system are the next generation of political, cultural, business leaders. We need an education system that effectively functions in order to provide the best education possible for all students. Crumbling schools will not achieve that.
by Callum Tilley