. Ms Keegan bizarrely attempted to defend the disruption as she was grilled by MPs in the Commons. "I have been to a number of these schools and seen children and met children in the Portakabins, and in fact at the first school I went to the children were all petitioning me to stay in the Portakabin because they actually preferred it to the classroom," she said. As Shadow Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson shouted from the Labour frontbench, Ms Keegan insisted: "The Portakabins are very high quality and I would advise her to go and see some of the high quality Portakabins that we have, and that is true." Ms Phillipson blasted the Education Secretary as she warned there could be 'years stretching ahead of our children sitting under steel girders'. A top Department for Education official this morning admitted that 248 temporary classrooms have been ordered by at least 29 schools. Around 6,500 children face being taught in temporary buildings, if an average primary school class has 27 children and most of the affected schools are primaries. Schools could be waiting months for temporary classrooms to be delivered, with cranes needed to get them in place, the Commons Education Select Committee heard. There are also concerns about how long it will take to organise critical infrastructure such as electric, gas and plumbing. Schools Minister Baroness Barran insisted temporary classrooms "tend to be extremely high quality and high specificati){kind=link}
The gaffe-prone Education Secretary insisted pupils like learning in temporary classrooms rather than proper school buildings as the Government admitted 174 schools in England contain collapse-prone RAAC concrete
Under-fire Education Secretary Gillian Keegan has claimed kids prefer being taught in temporary classrooms as more schools were revealed to have dangerous concrete.
Thousands of students face having lessons in temporary classrooms after an extra 27 sites were identified as having reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC). Ms Keegan bizarrely attempted to defend the disruption as she was grilled by MPs in the Commons. “I have been to a number of these schools and seen children and met children in the Portakabins, and in fact at the first school I went to the children were all petitioning me to stay in the Portakabin because they actually preferred it to the classroom,” she said.
As Shadow Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson shouted from the Labour frontbench, Ms Keegan insisted: “The Portakabins are very high quality and I would advise her to go and see some of the high quality Portakabins that we have, and that is true.” Ms Phillipson blasted the Education Secretary as she warned there could be “years stretching ahead of our children sitting under steel girders”.
A top Department for Education official this morning admitted that 248 temporary classrooms have been ordered by at least 29 schools. Around 6,500 children face being taught in temporary buildings, if an average primary school class has 27 children and most of the affected schools are primaries.