Cabinet wants investigation into possible crumbling floors in schools

The Minister of Housing and Spatial Planning, Hugo de Jonge, has asked all municipalities to check if there is any type of floor in neighborhood schools that may be crumbling. Schools, where this is the case, are requested to conduct an investigation.

In May, a piece of concrete above a classroom in Rotterdam came loose and fell onto a table. No one was present at the time. The minister suspects that several hundred schools have the same floor system, which was used from 1951 to 1973.

Municipalities should first check their archives to see if there are any schools in their area with such floors. Then they should ask the school boards where this is the case to investigate. De Jonge wants them to do this before the end of the summer vacation. The minister then wants to inform the Tweede Kamer about the results.

The floors are from the so-called MuWi system and consist of concrete beams with filler elements of the same material between them.

After the incident in the Rotterdam school, it was found that parts of the floor were loose in several places. After an investigation, research firm TNO found that two other schools in the city had similar damage. Investigators also found that the damage to the floors did not affect the structure. Overall, there is no acute risk of more concrete blocks falling at the three schools investigated.