Andrews Burns, the city’s council leader, said that all schools would now remain closed until PPP contractor Edinburgh Schools Partnership could assure the council that they were safe.

He warned that some of the buildings may remain closed until after the summer holidays to allow for essential and substantial repairs.

Burns said: “Yesterday evening the Council received early indications that suggest evidence of faults across all 17 affected schools to a varying extent.

“At the moment it is too early to say what the impact will be as full survey results from Edinburgh Schools Partnership have not yet been received.   Some faults may be easy to fix and may not present a major problem while others could be longer term,” he added.

“What is certain is that we won’t take risks with the safety of our schools children and schools won’t reopen until Edinburgh Schools Partnership can assure us of their safety.  As part of the contract, Edinburgh Schools Partnership own, maintain and assure the safety of the affected buildings.

“We will publish further information on individual school surveys when these are formally received and of course provide an update to parents on their individual schools and the remediation works required.”

The programme of structural surveys arranged by the Edinburgh Schools Partnership is continuing this week.

Construction of the schools under the £360m deal was completed in 2005.

The first phase of the deal saw building of 13 schools overseen by a 50/50 joint venture of Miller Construction and Amey. The second phase was built by Miller.

Galliford Try – who bought Miller in 2014 – carried out remedial works and checks on other buildings constructed under the initiative.