Eloise Horsfield
IT’S back to school again, but hundreds of children are suffering as a result of Spain’s economic crisis and government cuts.
In Coin, 20 infant-age children had to start the term in temporary classrooms after finding their new school, Ximenez de Guzman primary, had not been finished due to a lack of funds.
And they’re not the only ones – in total around 900 schoolchildren in Malaga province alone are reported to be studying in temporary classrooms.
Meanwhile pupils at CEIP Lope de Vega in Coin are being forced to spend two more hours at school a day after school bus services were reduced to save cash.
“The worst thing is that we weren’t told until the last minute,” said one parent of a child who won’t be arriving home until 3.40pm despite her classes finishing at 2pm.
Teachers meanwhile are now working harder – teaching 20 hours of classes per week instead of 18, meaning they have much less time to prepare lessons and mark work.
This change, combined with bigger class sizes, will mean teachers are doing much more work for the same money.
“We will have less time to correct many more exercise books and exams,” said Miguel Angel Vera, general secretary of a teachers’ union.
Meanwhile the Spanish Red Cross has carried out several campaigns to provide stationery to children whose parents cannot afford it.
Kind families donated pencils, rubbers, exercise books, scissors and Biros, with 800 poorer children in Malaga receiving new kits.
Spain’s youth are doomed.
Not just the youth Fred. I just cannot understand the madness that is going on in the world today.
Young students’ parents are facing GREATER financial difficulty… just meeting normal living expenses. And Spain has the HIGHEST nis nie rate in all of Europe – that is young adults who are NOT IN STUDIES and NOT IN EMPLOYMENT, while they live with their parents. Like the overtaxed countries with few employment opportunities, there WILL be a brain-drain as the smart ones move out to other countries. That hurts the home country for decades.
The EU mandarins’ economic dictate of restrictive governments’ spending may force sovereign countries to subjugate themselves to the EU to get $Bailouts, but that economic model had proved WRONG many times to stimulate economic/employment growth. Politicos just don’t LEARN FROM HISTORY. Then again, politicos always have jobs, & pensions