The 75 students from the Rosa Llàcer Special Education Center in Castellar, Valencia, returned to their classes yesterday after being forced to close following the floods on October 29th. Up until yesterday, the students had been displaced since November 11th, like many others during the dana crisis, at the Sebastián Burgos Special Education Center (in Quatre Carreres), the Ruiz Jiménez Special Education Center, and the Les Arenes Primary School in Poblats Marítims. With their reopening, all the centers affected by the dana in the capital of Valencia are now back to their normal routine.
In order to reopen, the Valencia City Council explains that improvement works have been carried out in the elevators and boilers of the Rosa Llàcer center, which were severely damaged, as well as the assistance machinery and training materials. The flood also caused damage to the rest of the facilities, which have been repaired in the weeks leading up to the resumption of classes, requiring a municipal investment of 340,000 euros.
The Ministry of Education also echoed the opening yesterday and stated that they had paid an additional 66,143 euros to the school for its reopening, this time for the acquisition of support material and orthopedic aids affected by the flood.
In Rosa Llàcer in Castellar, they have repaired elevators and boilers, among other facilities damaged by water
The STEPV union denounces that the Department of Education has not carried out the maintenance work in other schools. “Based on the information available to the union, they have not taken advantage of the Christmas holidays to make progress in the rehabilitation and reconstruction of the affected schools,” they pointed out yesterday. STEPV also demanded “the acceleration” of these works, as well as in the reconstruction of the schools affected by the storm, and denounced the lack of information provided by the Department to the educational community regarding the situation of the schools.
The attention given to students these days is also not reassuring, according to FAMPA Valencia. In statements to EFE, they point out that the dispersion of spaces (highlighting that some schools are in up to five different locations) hinders “from coordination to PTA activities” and that there are problems of “saturation and overcrowding in centers that have adapted spaces to accommodate complete cycles.”
Families denounce “saturation and overcrowding” of centers that have adapted spaces to accommodate students
Additionally, they mention that students who were temporarily received after the emergencies in other centers will finish the school year there, but “the teaching staff remains the same as before.” FAMPA states that educational support and intervention in response to the effects of the dana on the student population “concerns the educational communities in the centers,” and they added that the dining services are “overwhelmed” and “no extraordinary resources or specialized professionals have been allocated to assist the students affected by the cold drop.”
On the other hand, from the Conselleria, as reported by EFE, they emphasize that during this time, extraordinary scholarships for school meals have been set up, prefabricated classrooms have been installed, and additional teaching staff and materials have been provided. Now, the focus is on the reconstruction efforts so that relocated students can return to their schools.
The STEPV union denounces that the Department of Education has not carried out improvement works over Christmas
Let's remember that there are 13 Education centers that will not be able to open in the near future, as they present more serious problems; some will need to install prefabricated classrooms and others will even need to be rebuilt. Furthermore, all students affected by the floods have resumed their learning activities, in one way or another, remotely, at their center, or at another location.
