Pupils at 128 Oxfordshire schools are being taught in unsatisfactory mobile classrooms, according to the latest Government figures.

Headteacher Paula Taylor-Moore in one of the temporary buildings

Oxfordshire has 291 schools in total, meaning that 44 per cent have temporary classrooms.

That is more than in many large urban areas -- Manchester, which has 23 out of 150 schools (15 per cent) and Liverpool with 25 out of 174 (14 per cent). Newcastle has no temporary classrooms at any of its 102 schools.

Some of the makeshift buildings date back to the 1960s and 70s, when they were considered a fast and cheap solution to spiralling school populations.

But they were not intended for decades of service and continued use is frowned upon by national education chiefs.

Education minister David Miliband said he did not want to see children being taught in them - even on a medium term basis.

He did not blame local education bosses and admitted some headteachers had no choice.

He said: "The department does not encourage the replacement of defective permanent accommodation with temporary mobile classroom accommodation.

"But we do accept the necessity, in some cases, to respond to short term need or emergencies."

Oxfordshire County Council said it tried to provide permanent classrooms whenever funding was available. It said modern temporary buildings could provide "high quality teaching environments".

Oxfordshire is not alone - some LEAs have a bigger problem with more than 300 mobile- equipped schools, but a significant number of LEAs have either no mobile classrooms or a small number.

Details of temporary building use comes in the wake of a pledge by Chancellor Gordon Brown to revamp every school in the country.

In spending plans outlined in the March budget, Mr Brown promised millions of pounds to Oxfordshire LEA to bring all schools up to scratch.

But headteachers will have to wait years for the funds.

According to the Treasury the modernisation of every secondary school is timetabled for completion by 2015.

Clive Hallett, secretary of the Oxfordshire branch of the Nation- al Association of Headteachers, said: "Where a housing development takes place new people move to an area and schools nearby need developing.

"Then, after a generation or so things change, people move elsewhere, and a school is left under capacity, so you have empty classrooms.

"In other areas, where building has been carried out, there are schools that need expansion."

Oxfordshire's schools with temporary classrooms include St Gregory the Great Catholic School, Oxford, which opened in September 2003. It has three mobile classrooms for science and one for art. A permanent £11m building is scheduled for completion in 2006.

The highest number of temporary classrooms can be found at Didcot Girls School, where headteacher Paula Taylor-Moore said: "We call them huts, we don't grace them with the term mobile classroom.

"We have 26 huts and I wouldn't say they were high-quality teaching environments."

She said pupils had done their best to make the most of them, painting the huts and putting up wallpaper.

"But in this century," she added, "Pupils should not have to work in those conditions.

"We have one where you can't leave books because they go mouldy and one where the heating is either boiling hot or freezing cold."

Mrs Taylor-Moore was pleased the county had promised her a new 15-classroom block, with library, by 2006.

She said: "That is wonderful news, that we are going to get a modern building which will have the correct amount of heating and lighting."

John Mitchell, county education spokesman, said the Government funding available for new school buildings was never enough to fulfil the amount of premises that needed improving.

He said: "The good news is that funding has improved and we are now putting in fewer temporary classrooms and providing more new permanent buildings.

"Opportunities to replace temporary classrooms are taken whenever they present themselves. The recent reorganisation of the city schools, for example, resulted in the removal of most such classrooms from the city.

"It should be noted that 'temporary' accommodation is not, necessarily, unsuitable for teaching, in fact some modern temporary classrooms provide very high-quality teaching environments."