PARENTS should demand that schools speak up on asbestos, the NUT said yesterday as it revealed that four in five schools fail to offer information on managing the “silent killer.”

A motion to be heard at the teachers’ union’s conference in Harrogate today says that 300 former pupils and 15 teachers are dying of mesothelioma — the cancer caused by exposure to asbestos.

There could be extra risk for kids at free schools, which are often opened in “unsuitable buildings,” the union said.