THE RAAC crisis is turning political at Durham County Council, which is perhaps inevitable but rather sad as there should be unanimity in pushing the Government to do its utmost to resolve the disruption being experienced by some children.

It is truly shocking that in Ferryhill, there are classes of 100 – how can that be a good learning environment?

It is shocking that St Leonard’s School in Durham may not fully reopen until 2026 – that’s half a secondary school career for some children, who have already been through the educational upheaval of the Covid pandemic.

We hear of primary children being bussed on a daily basis to schools that are safe; we hear that pupils have missed so much education that they are going to be working through the holidays.

And all the time, more schools are being found to have autoclaved aerated concrete – another 43 were added to the total, taking it to 214 nationally, yesterday.

We can argue all we like about which party cut what school rebuilding programme but that is in the past. The present truth is that some children are having their education severely disrupted and, more than six weeks into the crisis, that is shocking.

The Government might consider itself unlucky that this crisis, which has its roots in the 1950s, should have blown up on its watch, but it can be judged on the way it responds to it. Education Secretary Gillian Keegan says the Government will do “whatever it takes” to minimise disruption so she needs to know that it must do much more than allow classes of 100 to persist otherwise it will be accused of letting our children down.

READ MORE COMMENT AND OPINION FROM THE NORTHERN ECHO HERE