Alex Trelinski
PARENTS at a Los Alcazares school have heard back from Spain’s Ombudsman after a lack of classrooms forced children to study at home for the first three weeks of the 2023-24 school year.
Around 250 students had to study online for three weeks caused by a shortage of prefabricated buildings, which they had used previously.
The AMPA parents teachers association at the IES Antonio Menarguez Costa contacted Ombudsman Angel Gabliondo on September 13.
The submission urged for a ‘definitive solution’ with the building of a new school.
The group says they’ve had a reply which said that ‘information had been requested’ from the Murcia region’s Ministry of Education.
Los Alcazares Education councillor, Josefa Lajara, said: “The students showed up in September and there were no classrooms for them, and were told to go home and download an app.”
“Many of them were left on their own, which was wrong as they are minors,” she added.
The original school accommodated 400 pupils but there are now over 1,100 students enrolled.
The centre used eight prefabricated classrooms in the previous academic year but some of them were removed because they had been ear-marked for use elsewhere.
“The parents were very angry because the tender for the replacement classrooms had been delayed which caused the problem- a problem that didn’t appear suddenly and we don’t understand this way of working,” said AMPA president, Conchi Sanchez.
“Other municipalities have decent educational facilities but Los Alcazares doesn’t,” she fumed.
Sanchez attacked the regional Ministry of Education for patching up classroom shortages around several local schools through putting up barracks or prefabs.
“It has refused to provide a solution to the demographic needs of Los Alcazares, a municipality which has experienced significant population growth including children,” Sanchez concluded.
