CRUMBLING schools in York and North Yorkshire need repairs costing more than £140 million, the Evening Press can reveal.

The shocking statistic proves thousands of pupils are being taught in classrooms with faulty boilers, broken windows or unstable roofs.

The money would be spent urgently upgrading primary and secondary school buildings to a "serviceable state", as well as modernisation and refurbishment over the next five years.

Cash-strapped City of York Council needs £41.6 million to plug leaks in school roofs, shore up unstable walls, install modern heating systems, repair cracked, draughty windows - and get rid of 57 temporary classrooms.

North Yorkshire County Council requires £100.5 million. Its education department has not revealed how many temporary classrooms it has.

In addition, East Riding of Yorkshire, which has 104 mobile classrooms, is seeking £90.4 million.

The figures are based on estimates by each local education authority.

The repair bills for rickety buildings were slipped out in answer to a Parliamentary question.

Last year, the Evening Press reported on a long-running campaign to replace 30-year-old dilapidated mobile classrooms at Huntington School with a £4.9 million development.

The school secured £2.6 million in Whitehall funding to replace rotting classrooms and City of York Council agreed to provide £1.5 million. A further £800,000 will come from the school.

Chris Bridge, head teacher at Huntington School, said: "While we are pleased we have got the money for our new building, we still have our fair share of problems.

"We still have got classrooms with real insulation problems and in warm weather, they get terribly hot, which makes it extremely difficult to teach and learn."

The executive member for education on City of York Council, Coun Carol Runciman, said: "The council has an extensive programme of repairs and upgrading going on in schools in York, but what we need from the Government is more money to rebuild some of our schools." Phil Willis, the Liberal Democrats' education spokesman who is also the Harrogate MP, said: "Every day, pupils and teachers spend many hours in their school buildings. It should be the Government's priority to ensure that these premises are modern, clean and fit for a 21st century education."

A Department for Education and Skills spokesperson said: "After decades of chronic underfunding, we have increased spending on school buildings from £683 million in 1997 to £6.3 billion in the period 2007/8 - a massive six-fold increase in real terms.

"Every secondary school across the country will be refurbished or replaced under our Building Schools For The Future (BSF) programme.

"Thirty-eight local authorities are already part of BSF and will receive a share of over £6 billion in capital funding between 2005 and 2008."

Updated: 10:07 Monday, January 24, 2005