Parents anger grows as school stays closed

Date: 28/09/00

By John Shelley

AN ASBESTOS scare has forced a Brussels school for the children of Eurocrats to stay closed since the summer holidays, sparking fury among parents.

The 2,500-pupil European School in Uccle was due to reopen on 7 September but has kept its doors shut after tests revealed that the quantity of asbestos fibre in the air was only just below the limits defined as acceptable by the World Health Organisation.

Parents were initially told that there would be a two-week delay to the start of the autumn term because building work on the site planned for the summer holidays was late getting started. But after an asbestos test the day before the school was due to re-open on 21 September, parents were contacted and told that the opening would be postponed again. Some were phoned after 11pm the night before while others found out at 6am on the day classes were due to start.

The school now says it will re-open on 4 October, although parents say builders on the site have told them the work will not be finished until the end of the month. In the meantime, emergency accommodation has been found for younger children and 17- and 18-year-olds at the school, but 11- to 16-year-olds are having to stay home.

Parents are outraged at the handling of the affair, saying that by the time the school reopens their children will have lost a tenth of their school year. "The whole thing is a complete shambles," said the mother of one 11-year-old boy. "They knew throughout the summer that the workers would not be done in time. They should have already taken measures to start looking for alternative classrooms."

The school is one of 12 run from Union coffers for the children of officials of EU institutions.

An asbestos scare has forced a Brussels school for the children of Eurocrats to stay closed since the summer holidays, sparking fury among parents.