Does our Education Secretary get 10/10?

September 10, 2023

“Does anyone ever say you’ve done a f**king good job because everyone else has sat on their a*se and done nothing?”  Education Secretary Gillian Keegan broke the first rule of politics this week – don’t mark your own work.

And if your child is in one of the affected schools like Ferryhill in County Durham or St Anne’s in Gateshead you’re unlikely to give Britain’s education chief 10 out of 10. Indefinite online learning or a delayed start of term is not what parents wanted from the new school year.

If Mrs Keegan seems surprised to find the public ungrateful she might want to look back at her own government’s record.

“We’re on the right track and we’ll fix the roof when the sun is shining,” tweeted then Prime Minister David Cameron a decade ago.  Except his government didn’t fix the roof.  It’s now in danger of falling down completely.

Even normal concrete is porous – water can soak through.  Autoclaved aerated reinforced concrete (RAAC) even more so – the middle is like a sponge.  The water dissolves oxygen in it, and the rebar – the steel reinforcing rod – undergoes galvanic corrosion.  Strong steel turns to flaky rust.  And while RAAC is lightweight compared to concrete or bricks, it remains very heavy if it comes into contact with human skulls.

No one has been injured – yet.  Thankfully.  But the disruption and costs are huge.  Short-term decision making is the bane of our public services.

Who approved a 30-year building material for schools?  It was widely used from the 1950s to the 1990s in public buildings.  I mean, who said, “Oh, 30 years is ages – we won’t need schools by then.”   My guess is short-term cost-cutting won over long-term sustainability.  It’s a recurring pattern.

The Government has known about RAAC’s 30 year life expectancy since 1996 when John Major was prime minister.  The last Labour Government launched its Building Schools for the Future programme in 2005.  Michael Gove scrapped that programme when he was Education Secretary, a decision he apparently now regrets.

Building Schools for the Future did transform many school buildings, but at a cost.  It was a PFI programme.  By 2016, nine North East PFI school programmes had been completed.  Their cash value – if Government had just paid for the buildings – was £368 million.  Using PFI, which adds on finance costs and expensive maintenance contracts, it cost £1,477 million.  Four times more.

During the National Audit Office’s 2011 investigation into PFI it was revealed one school paid £333 to have a light bulb changed.  It sounds like a joke, but it’s true.  Some directors of these PFI firms get paid over £3 million a year.  Teachers had to strike to get a 6.5% pay deal – that’s less than inflation.

And unlike Government borrowing, PFI contracts are index linked – so as inflation rises, taxpayers pay more.  These companies take no risk.  If you’ve ever wondered why working people pay more tax than ever, yet the Government says it has no money, there’s your answer.

Step forward Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, boasting about his record as Chancellor.  One of his first announcements was a “new 10-year school rebuilding programme” – 50 schools refurbished or rebuilt every year.  Sounds good, doesn’t it?  Until you realise there are 22,000 schools in England. So that’s 440 years between refurbishments.  Mr Sunak previously said we need to teach more maths in this country. In his case, he’s right.

Neither of the main parties has covered themselves in glory on this. Labour’s refusal to make any statement that might imply spending money one day has reached a new level of parody. Shadow Ministers rolled out to say in effect, “We won’t commit to fix crumbling school buildings – but ooh, look at those awful Tories.”

Or to tackling child poverty by lifting the two-child cap.  Or tackling the climate emergency by investing in renewable energy at scale.  Or stopping ill health and wasting energy by retrofitting homes.  The list goes on.  All cheaper to fix now than to leave as financial time-bombs for our kids.

Unless we look further ahead than the 5 year electoral cycle, we’ll always lurch from crisis to crisis.  Whether the sun is shining or not.