The government must “do better” to ensure classrooms are “fit for learning”, the leader of a headteachers’ union will say today.
Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), is expected to say that the condition of many school and college buildings is “simply shocking”.
His comments come as a survey for ASCL found that more than half (57 per cent) of teachers and school leaders said their classrooms are too hot in the summer because of poor ventilation.
Many schools have to “scrabble for cash” to afford the costs of basic repairs and maintenance, Mr Barton will say on the second day of the union’s annual conference in Liverpool today.
He is set to highlight poll findings by Teacher Tapp, which asked 8,585 teachers and leaders in state schools in England in February about the condition of the classroom they had most recently taught in.
More than a quarter (28 per cent) said they were too cold because of inadequate heating systems and nearly a fifth (19 per cent) said windows and doors were broken.
Meanwhile, nearly one-fifth (19 per cent) reported poor electrics.
Around one in seven (15 per cent) said they had recently taught in classrooms with leaking ceilings.
‘Government has to do better’
In his final address to the union’s annual conference before stepping down in April, Mr Barton will say the findings show the “pressure on the ground”.
He will say: “Not only has capital investment been wholly inadequate but tortuous funding systems mean many schools have to scrabble for cash through a bidding process - just to afford the cost of basic repairs and maintenance.
“It is surely obvious that government has to do better than this - that learning environments have to be fit for learning.”
Last June, a report by the National Audit Office concluded that around 700,000 pupils are learning in a school believed to need “major rebuilding or refurbishment”, following years of “underinvestment”.
And Tes investigations have revealed how hundreds of schools have repeatedly missed out in their applications for funding to repair rundown buildings due to a “soul destroying” bidding process.
RAAC crisis
Last month, the Department for Education said that more than 100 schools affected by the RAAC crisis will be rebuilt under the department’s School Rebuilding Programme.
Mr Barton will also call on all political parties to improve revenue funding for education over the course of the next Parliament.
He will say: “Population estimates predict that the number of pupils in England’s schools will fall by half a million over the next five years. It adds up to a huge multi-billion-pound saving.”
There is a “golden opportunity to put education on a more sustainable footing”, he will say.
He is expected to add: “Use this money to raise the rate of per-pupil funding, and the pupil premium. It’s a policy that costs nothing - or at least nothing extra - but it would make a world of difference to children and young people, and particularly those from disadvantaged homes.”
Barton stepping down as ASCL leader
Mr Barton is stepping down in April following seven years as general secretary of ASCL. He will be succeeded by Pepe Di’Iasio, currently headteacher of Wales High School in Rotherham.
In his final speech as the union’s leader, Mr Barton will tell hundreds of school and college leaders that there is a need to “look again at the substance of education” with a “laser-like review” of the national curriculum.
He will also call for an end to the “snobby obsession” with academic versus technical education.
Yesterday, education secretary Gillian Keegan spoke at the ASCL conference, controversially stating that she was “shocked” to hear of a school’s experience with Ofsted and that she probably would have “punched” the rude inspectors.
The DfE has been contacted for comment.
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