Britain’s education minister, Gillian Keegan, issued an apology on Monday following a profanity-laden outburst in which she expressed frustration about not receiving sufficient acknowledgement for doing a “fucking good job” in addressing the safety concerns of potentially hundreds of unsafe school buildings.
Gillian Keegan wrote on X, “I’m sorry for my off the cuff remark and choice language earlier. I know parents are concerned. I’ve been working non-stop to resolve this issue as quickly as possible.
Most schools aren’t affected, but those that are have been contacted directly and will receive rapid support and funding to keep children safe and minimise disruption to their learning.”
Bloomberg reported that accusations are being leveled against Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, suggesting that during his tenure as Chancellor of the Exchequer, he personally authorized reductions in school building budgets, despite receiving warnings about the potential hazards posed to students and educators due to deteriorating concrete structures.
Sunak in 2021 halved the number of schools set to be rebuilt, Jonathan Slater, who was the top civil servant at the Department for Education from May 2016 to August 2020, told BBC Radio on Monday. “The Department for Education had asked the Treasury to at least double the number of schools in a rebuilding program to 200 from 100, but instead it was cut in half”, he said.
The disclosure has intensified inquiries into whether the funding choices made by the Conservative government might have been responsible for the recent closure of over 100 school buildings last week, citing concerns related to Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (RAAC). There are suggestions that potentially hundreds of additional schools could also be affected by this issue.
This comes days before the commencement of the new academic year, looms large over the political landscape as Members of Parliament reconvene following their summer recess. This situation poses a challenge to the government’s efforts to take the lead, especially as Rishi Sunak strives to close the considerable gap between the Conservative Party and the leading Labour Party in opinion polls.
Furthermore, Keir Starmer is poised to reshuffle his senior team on Monday in anticipation of an upcoming general election, a move that could provide insights into the composition of the next British government.
Bloomberg reported that Sunak “bears huge culpability for his role in this debacle,” Labour’s shadow education secretary, Bridget Phillipson, said in an emailed statement. “The defining image of thirteen years of the Conservative-run education system will be children sat under steel girders to stop the roof falling in.”
Reuters reported that Sunak informed the press that approximately 95% of the approximately 22,000 schools in England would remain unaffected, with problems potentially confined to individual classrooms in numerous instances.
His spokesperson said, “the number of schools affected would be in the hundreds not the thousands.”
(With inputs from agencies)
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Updated: 05 Sep 2023, 12:24 PM IST