GOVERNMENT plans to rebuild or repair hundreds of schools left crumbling through use of dangerous concrete will take years to complete and will receive no new funding, teaching unions said today.

And there are no plans to deal with schools riddled with deadly asbestos.

Teachers’ unions NASUWT and National Education Union (NEU) were responding to an announcement from the government’s Department for Education (DfE) that it has “committed to funding the removal of reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (Raac) present in schools and colleges in England either through grants or through the school rebuilding programme.”

NEU general secretary Daniel Kebede said: “It is now clear that, after all the bluster, the government will turn to existing school rebuilding funds to deal with the full list of affected schools.

“That means children are still being taught in temporary classrooms and education still being severely disrupted.

“If the Chancellor had been true to his word back in September, and committed money, then this could all have been dealt with in a much more timely fashion.”

The DfE said that 119 schools affected by Raac would be rebuilt and 110 would receive grants to fund its removal.

NASUWT general secretary Dr Patrick Roach said: “There remain serious questions to be answered about how quickly these schools will get the building work they require.

“There are many more schools that are in a serious state of disrepair and riddled with asbestos, but ministers have come forward with no plans to fix them.

“Pupils and staff cannot continue to have their educations and futures put on hold because of government neglect and incompetence.”