Concrete safety fears have thrown the new term into turmoil at more than 100 schools in England.
Mr Gibb told BBC Radio 4's Today programme the guidance changed because "a beam that had no sign... that it was a critical risk and was thought to be safe collapsed".Writing in The Times, Dame Meg Hillier, chairwoman of the public accounts committee, said on a recent visit to a hospital, the building was so fragile due to RAAC that obese patients were only permittedShe said the concrete issue was the "tip of the iceberg" for a "failing school estate".
The Department for Education has not given a timeline for replacing the RAAC, which was widely used until the mid-90s.In Scotland, 35 council-run schools have been found to contain the material. All were under assessment. Pascal Dowling, whose child's school in Somerset has been affected, said she wanted the government to "bear responsibility for yet another catastrophic failure".
On Thursday, Education Secretary Gillian Keegan said the plan would "minimise the impact on pupil learning and provide schools with the right funding and support they need to put mitigations in place to deal with RAAC".Teachers' unions have criticised the DfE for making the call so close to pupils returning to school.However, schools would have to bid through the department's capital funding process for permanent replacements for lost classrooms or buildings.
It is still manufactured in hundreds of factories around the world, and is still used as a building material in numerous countries, according to Chris Goodier, professor of construction engineering and materials at Loughborough University.
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