Suffolk Liberal Democrats have revealed that the number of children being educated in temporary classrooms in Suffolk schools has tripled in the last six years.
More than 1,500 pupils are being taught in portacabins across the County. Under the previous Liberal Democrat/Labour administration, there had been a significant drive to reduce the number of temporary classrooms. In 2007 there were 583 pupils in temporary classrooms. The figure of 1500 is set to rise even further with the announcement of the closure of four middle schools in the Stowmarket and Stowupland area.
Spokesperson for Children and Young People's services, Penny Otton said, "This significant increase in temporary classroom places is unacceptable, and just shows that the Conservatives do not take education seriously. Recently there has been a rash of planning applications for portacabin style classrooms. This is due to the lack of space at many primary schools in the areas which previously had middle schools.
"When we ran the council in coalition, we made a commitment to reduce the number of temporary classrooms, but all this good work has now been wiped out. The Conservatives seem desperate to get rid of the last few middle schools without the necessary funding for permanent buildings.
"We warned at the time that the Conservatives would not have enough money for new classrooms after the Building Schools for the Future was abolished by Government. They carried on regardless, and look at what's happened."
Cllr David Wood, Leader of the Liberal Democrat Group, said, "The Conservatives record on education just gets worse and worse. Not only has Suffolk dropped dramatically down to the very bottom of attainment league tables, but they are continuing to abolish well performing middle schools, ignoring the wishes of the parents and to the detriment of children's education. And now we see a significant and unacceptable rise in temporary classroom places. The Conservatives have completely taken their eye off the ball."
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