£35BN REVAMP WILL PRODUCE GENERATION OF MEDIOCRE SCHOOLS

7/21/2008 7:17:00 AM

The Guardian 21 July

The biggest school building programme in a generation is on course to produce billions of pounds worth of "mediocre" facilities, an audit conducted by the government's own architecture watchdog has revealed.An estimated eight out of 10 designs for secondary schools proposed under the £35bn Building Schools for the Future (BSF) initiative are "mediocre" or "not yet good enough" and less than a fifth are considered to be "good" or "excellent".Among the problems discovered in a detailed review of 40 proposed designs for schools across the country are bullying hotspots in secluded yards, noisy open plan areas which make teaching difficult and classrooms which are too dark or prone to overheating on sunny afternoons. The findings from the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (Cabe) were released following a freedom of information request by the Guardian and represent the latest blow to a flagship New Labour programme which Gordon Brown had promised would deliver schools that are "the best equipped in the world for 21st-century learning". Every one of the country's 3,500 secondary schools is to be improved or rebuilt under the initiative by 2020. Ministers believe there is a positive link between pupil performance and investment in school buildings.The Commons select committee on education has launched an inquiry into the quality of the schools being built under the programme and its chairman, Barry Sheerman MP, said he was alarmed by Cabe's findings. He called on the government to throw out any design unless it is classed as good or excellent.Guardian

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