The problem is a real one. The number of school enrollments is going up steadily and since this is expected to keep going up, there is an urgent need to ensure that adequate infrastructural facilities by way of enough schools and classrooms are made available to cater to this growth. While online education has been popular and many are using this route as well, there is no denying the fact that parents want their children to experience the rigours of proper school education and are doing everything to ensure that they enroll on time. Despite the fact that this increase in enrollments were forecast to some extent in the decades gone by and they came up with the concept of mobile classrooms, the frequent migration and movement of families has made it difficult to make available such structures in a uniform manner everywhere and that is presenting a great challenge to the authorities. So though the number of such temporary structures has been going up steadily, the shortfall is still a big one and needs immediate redress.
There is no doubt that mobile classrooms save the concerned schools both money as well as time. All such structures are prefabricated at a place according to the designs specified and then delivered at the place where they are required in a very short time. As compared to permanent structures where the wait is a long one, this suits the needs of the schools and it is therefore not surprising that many schools are opting for this alternative.
You must not forget that many schools do not have deep pockets to actually go through the process of designing and building permanent structures. The finance required for modular or temporary structures is far more affordable. They are also able to get finance from lenders at a reasonable rate of interest or get favourable lease arrangements due to certain concessions given by the government to promote the cause of education.
The other advantage of having these mobile classrooms or trailers is that schools can resell them and recover a great portion of the cost, if they feel that they no longer need them and can arrange for something permanent. They would only have to bear the cost of some depreciation that can be worked out and normally that is not a high one if the structure has been maintained reasonably well enough.
Usually though, these temporary structures become permanent over some time and that is where the cost of maintaining them comes into play. This too has to be considered by the school and many schools have had to replace the trailers after a decade of use. At that time, there is not much value to be gained from the reselling of these structures but the fact that they have served the school for such a long time and helped them save on costs should be enough incentive for many schools to consider this option.