The Parents and Teachers Association (APA) of the CEIP Playas de Orihuela say they are extremely angry and have now reached the end of their patience as over a hundred of their supporters launched a day of protests last Monday outside the local Junior school which is now celebrating 13 years in antiquated portacabins.
They say that they will continue to protest every Monday until the situation is resolved.
APA President, Yolanda Fernandez, says that the parents are "absolutely disgusted" that they have to deliver their children every single day to a ‘temporary’ building complex made up of 20 antiquated portacabins which are purported to pass for the Community Junior School.
The situation was brought to a head last week, she says, when on Tuesday a metal ceiling panel broke away from the roof of a classroom full of 5 year old’s and dropped down onto a desk being shared by 4 children. Fortunately the students were carrying out an activity in another part of the room at the time and there were no injuries.
However the consequences could have been quite different and resulted in a number of serious injuries.
One parent reported the matter to Canal Vega TV who sent down a team to investigate. Their newsman Ruben Miguez was denied access however and had to compile his report from the adjacent road.
As he conducted interviews outside a number of contractors could quite clearly be seen in the background making repairs to the portacabin roofs.
Fernandez said that Regional President, Alberto Fabra, had promised a brick built school for the Orihuela Costa in the run up to the 2010 elections but 5 years later the building was no further forward and in the intervening years they had made excuse after excuse.
This latest incident is just one of a long list of faults and complaints that were distributed in a circular to parents and to press as APA strive to publicise the plight of their children, which they feel are being increasingly abandoned, and each of which will spend nine years on site as they undergo Junior education. Extracts include:
“Children from Infantile have been standing in deep water up to their knees during 8 hours because of incorrect construction of the drains which flooded into their “classrooms”.
We were witnesses of water leaks from the electric plugs, sleepy ramps on the way to Comedor, flooded Library with mold and damp on the books….
Our children shake from cold when they have to go to the toilet which is outside.
What are we waiting for? Now is the time to stop it!!”
Indeed it is difficult to see how the children can’t but be influenced by the situation and how their development would almost certainly be affected, both physically and psychologically by the cold and the rain during the winter and the intense heat during the long summer months, which the ancient utility plant is finding it increasingly difficult to manage.
Small children, it is claimed, can sit in wet clothes for up to 8 hours because the classroom heating is inferior. There are leaks in many of the classrooms and in the dining area, flooded library books are covered with mold and mildew.
There are also said to be constant power failures, caused by obsolete overhead wiring, which further hinders student comfort, welfare and learning.
As a result of the broken promises and the growing frustration that many parents now feel APA say that they will continue to demonstrate every Monday morning from 8:30 to 9:15 on the road outside CEIP Playas de Orihuela, and there they will stay until Fabra and his government fulfil their promises and provide the neighbourhood with what they need, a brick built school that is so very essential to the education and development of the Orihuela Costa’s increasingly abandoned young children.
Let’s hope that we don’t have to wait until a child is seriously injured before any action is taken!
Filed under: http://www.theleader.info/article/46403/
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