New documents show continuing issues with asbestos in schools. Photo: 123rf
A school let children draw and paint on damaged asbestos panels, probably exposing them to dangerous dust.
At another unnamed school, a class had been pinning their artwork directly into a wallboard containing asbestos; later checks found asbestos debris below it.
The "high risk" cases are two of several in reports newly released to RNZ that uncover "significant deficiencies" in the Education Ministry's handling of asbestos, and in which officials make the case for them to begin a $60m nationwide cleanup - or risk prosecution, or worse impacts to children's health.
"The audit findings have revealed widespread non-compliance with asbestos regulations in schools, raising serious concerns about the health and safety of students, staff, and visitors," said one 2023 report.
The reports use the examples of several unnamed schools to illustrate the damning findings of an earlier sweeping audit.
"The panels were found to be in poor condition in parts," said one case taken from the audit, about the painted panels in a school's changing rooms.
"More alarmingly was that it appears the school children were allowed to paint and draw directly on to the asbestos panels."
It went on: "Likelihood of the surfaces to contain asbestos containing dust ... Potential ongoing exposure to school children due to the material being in a damaged condition."
The rooms were cordoned off and fixed.
At one of the other schools, asbestos surveyors got their pre-build checks badly wrong: "Material incorrectly assessed deeming it to be in a safer condition than it actually is."
"Significant daily asbestos exposure to children and teachers if disturbed. Disturbance would have occurred when fixing drawing pins and art work to the board. Room required immediate isolation and safety barrier construction."
Examples of asbestos from ministry documents. Photo: Source: Ministry of Education
These two cases are historical, from the audit done in 2021 but only revealed now by RNZ under the OIA.
The audit was used by the ministry in a June 2023 business case for a fix-it programme that estimated 90,000 classrooms and other school "spaces" needed checking.
It was likely one-fifth, or almost 20,000, would have asbestos that needed removing or sealing over, it said.
Most of that work has not been done yet.
Who is responsible for asbestos issues?
The ministry as recently as May 2024 told RNZ the onus was on school boards and principals to manage asbestos and meet their obligations under health and safety laws.
But the OIA also contains a 19-page legal analysis done last year that puts responsibility squarely back on the ministry.
"Findings from the audit report reveal significant deficiencies in the Ministry of Education's (MoE)
knowledge and awareness regarding asbestos compliance in New Zealand state schools," the internal analysis said.
The report showed asbestos issues in schools. Photo: Source: Ministry of Education
"It highlights the urgent need for the MoE to address these deficiencies and take immediate action to rectify non-compliance, improve asbestos identification processes, and ensure the safety of students, staff, and others within school premises."
Work to support schools is now under way, but has taken years to get off the mark.
The ministry has been quietly weighing the problem and what to do, with this only coming to light through months of inquiries by RNZ, including by [https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/515836/we-weren-t-informed-apprentice-working-on-school-unaware-of-asbestos hearing from struggling schools.
The legal analysis said it was of "utmost urgency" that the ministry "fully comprehend" its obligations under health and safety laws.
"As schools have failed to achieve compliance with asbestos regulations, and as a detailed audit has concluded this to be the case, the MoE holds both a legal and moral obligation to provide additional support," said the 19-page analysis by Rob McAllister, co-chair of ministry's National Asbestos Management Panel (NAMP).
The NAMP was set up in 2021, nine years on from research in 2012 - cited by Worksafe in 2018 - that found the number one workplace killer was cancer linked to exposure from asbestos.
The schools' problem is not just asbestos, or worse still the dust from it, inside classroom ceilings and walls, but poor assessments that fail to identify it, dodgy removal jobs that fail to get rid of it, and incompetent sign-off on bad jobs, the 89-page business case behind the $60m fix-it programme shows.
Case studies show repeated failures
One case study in the business case said: "Project manager / MoE staff failed to recognise the legal requirement to obtain an asbestos refurbishment survey prior to starting any work."
Tradies were sent in and crawled through "extensive" asbestos debris under classrooms without masks. The alarm went up, forcing a two-week delay and remediation estimated at $80,000-$150,000.
In another case from the audit, a school site was twice certified free of asbestos when it was not: "Professional capability of licensed assessor/consultancy now in question".
"Display of poor removal practices," and it went on to say the consultancy fees of $2000-3000 multiple times were "likely to be hidden with the invoice of the site PM [project manager]".
RNZ reported two months ago that the ministry was moving against cowboy operators, after over a year of considering what to do, by moving to set up two panels, one of consultants and planners, and the other of removalists with strong track records, which schools would have to use.
The officials refuse to name the schools in the OIA reports, but there are photos, such as of a "large pile of .. very high risk, friable [dusty] asbestos" in a crawlspace, and of drilled and damaged asbestos sheets.
The photo in the changing rooms where the children drew on the asbestos panels is blanked out. The original note from an assessment of what had gone wrong, stated:
"Community (In an event it became public knowledge). Loss of trust in the school/MOE to provide a safe learning environment.
"Poor media image."
The ministry initially withheld these case studies from RNZ, and only released them after RNZ appealed.
The ministry on Thursday told RNZ all the cases in the audit had been dealt with.
The 90,000 spaces included just over 68,000 teaching spaces and 22,000 non-teaching spaces such as hallways, storage, resource areas and plant rooms, it said.
The aim was to set up the quality control panels by early next year. It did not comment on if it was still budgeted at $60m and where that funding was coming from.
The ministry repeated that it can provide advice to schools on managing asbestos, "but ultimately health and safety compliance is the responsibility of school boards and staff".
RNZ will shortly report further on what the ministry's reports say must be done
