The government won鈥檛 confirm its deadline to rid every school of crumbly RAAC until the new year, Gillian Keegan has said. The education secretary said she would not give a 鈥渄efinitive date鈥 until mitigations to make every school safe were complete. Ministers and officials have scrambled to respond to the growing crumbly concrete crisis in schools since changing guidance just days before the beginning of the autumn term. An shows the presence of the concrete has been confirmed at 231 schools and colleges. The government has pledged to rebuild all schools 鈥渢hat need it鈥, but has repeatedly refused to set a deadline for removing RAAC from the school estate entirely. This is despite pressure from the Commons public accounts committee, which called in November for the education department to announce a funding package and deadline, like their NHS counterparts. Addressing the Parliamentary education committee this morning, Keegan said her 鈥渇irst objective I have is to make every school safe鈥. Work to shore up dangerous school buildings has involved building hardwood structures or steel beams below RAAC to prevent collapse. Keegan said she hoped such works would be complete 鈥渋n the very near future鈥. ‘Safe schools is my first objective’ A panel of experts is then sorting schools into 鈥渢wo groups鈥 鈥 those that will receive grant funding to remove RAAC, and those that will be fully or partially rebuilt. Keegan said she understood schools were 鈥渒een to understand where they are, and we鈥檒l be issuing that [information] as soon as possible. 鈥淲e will be able to give you a definitive date when all schools are safe from RAAC because that was my very first objective.鈥 Pressed by MPs, Keegan said this would be 鈥渧ery shortly鈥, but not before Christmas, calling the expected announcement a 鈥渘ew year present鈥. It is anticipated that schools with RAAC will take up the remaining 100 slots in the government鈥檚 existing school rebuilding programme, but ministers have said they will fund other projects if needed. Keegan told MPs today 鈥渨e have got a commitment from the Treasury that we will do what we need to do to rebuild if there鈥檚 more than the 100 slots, and I think it鈥檚 fair to say that I anticipate it probably will be more which is why we got that in the first place鈥. The crisis has also prompted a scramble to get temporary buildings onto school sites to teach displaced pupils. Susan Acland-Hood, the DfE鈥檚 permanent secretary, revealed today that 41 settings now had 215 temporary units. But she was unable to confirm how many settings that need temporary buildings have not yet received them, admitting there will 鈥渟till be settings that we have identified later in the process that need temporary buildings that don鈥檛 have them yet鈥. 鈥淭here will also be settings that didn鈥檛 need temporary buildings in order to get all pupils back into face to face education but might still benefit from some specialist units.鈥 School faces temporary classroom delay But Anna Firth, the MP for Southend West, warned schools faced long delays in receiving temporary classrooms. Kingsdown special school in her patch was 鈥渁bsolutely promised that those temporary buildings would be in place and up and in use after half term鈥. 鈥淏ut they were not. And I had to intervene because no fire certificate had been applied-for.鈥 Acland-Hood said children were 鈥渁ll back on site from November 10鈥, but added 鈥淚鈥檓 sorry it didn鈥檛 happen as early as it should have done鈥. However, Keegan said it was down to schools鈥 responsible bodies to apply for fire certificates 鈥渟o we will take that up with them鈥. The school is part of the SEN Trust Southend. Keegan also revealed today that all schools and colleges with suspected RAAC had received their 鈥渇irst surveys鈥, with more confirmed cases expected to be identified. But she said the pattern seen so far of emerging cases suggested 鈥渢here will only be probably a handful more cases because it鈥檚 definitely, massively slowed down鈥. Some schools also need a second survey, and for some schools surveyors 鈥渕ay be waiting for Christmas鈥 to carry out more invasive work when children are not around.