A survey by the UK’s biggest education union on the state of school buildings in England and Wales has found two in five teachers reporting signs of vermin or pests and more than a quarter complaining of sewage or wastewater leaks.
Of the 8,000 members of the National Education Union who responded to the online poll, two-thirds (68%) said they worked in buildings that leaked, with one in 10 describing the problem as “severe”.
A third of respondents said pupils were being taught in “severely overheated” conditions in summer and one in six (16%) complained of the severe cold in winter. More than half (57%) said the state of their school facilities was so bad it was having a negative impact on the learning environment.
The dilapidated state of England’s ageing school estate was thrown into sharp focus by the recent crisis involving crumbling concrete – Raac, which stands for reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete – which resulted in emergency school closures at the start of term in September.
A parliamentary inquiry found that 700,000 pupils were learning in classrooms that needed a major rebuild or refurbishment.
Respondents to the NEU poll complained of windows that either did not open or close, carpets sodden with rainwater, creeping mould, holes in ceilings, out-of-order boilers and classrooms off limits due to asbestos or crumbling concrete.
Almost half (45%) of respondents reported mould or damp in their workplace, with a fifth (21%) describing it as “moderate or severe”. One respondent said: “The conditions have led to diagnosis of asthma in staff and pupils, and led to long-term sickness due to lung infection and exacerbation of asthma.”
Another said: “My hands were bleeding during the cold spell earlier this year because the classroom was so cold. This is unhygienic and painful.”
On leaks, one respondent said: “We have a ceiling leak that is causing severe damage that has been left for four years.”
Another comment read: “Two years ago, the ceiling fell in in my classroom after some heavy rain. It was lucky this happened in the middle of the night or people, including me, would have been seriously injured.”
And another contributor said: “One of our classrooms has fungus growing out of the carpet. The site manager has to remove it regularly.” Another NEU member said: “Our building is full of asbestos and is falling down. Pieces of the plaster/concrete on walls and ceiling regularly flake off.”
The NEU general secretary, Daniel Kebede, said: “Leaks and ventilation are a chronic issue for many. The fact is that this government has neglected school and college buildings for 14 years. At the present rate of 50 schools a year, the government’s school rebuilding programme will take 460 years to complete its work. That is many more generations of children to fail.
“This must change. We need to see a serious injection of new money into projects that will regenerate the school estate and ensure that asbestos, Raac and time spent learning in Portakabins are a thing of the past. If this government was serious about education and the wellbeing of staff and students then it would do so.”
A Department for Education spokesperson said schools and sixth form colleges will benefit from £1.8bn this financial year to help maintain buildings, taking the total amount of funding to over £17bn since 2015.
