The draft regional budget sets aside €11,889.7 million for Education and €176 million for work on educational infrastructure, but does not include a direct allocation for the new school in Manilva. The Provincial Delegate for Education in Málaga, Miguel Ángel Briones, told representatives of the education community this morning that funding will be sought through European funds from the next 2027 framework.
The construction of Manilva’s second secondary school does not appear specifically in the draft 2027 Budget of the Junta de Andalucía, approved this Friday by the Governing Council. This was announced this morning by the Provincial Delegate for Educational Development and Vocational Training in Málaga, Miguel Ángel Briones, during the meeting held with representatives of the AMPAS (parents’ associations), the management of IES Las Viñas and municipal officials.
Briones told those present that, although the regional accounts for the coming financial year do not include a named allocation to build the new school, funding routes will be sought to make it possible, pointing to European funds from the next 2027 budget framework.
The explanation comes on a day when the Junta approved regional accounts totalling €54,716.7 million, 6% more than in 2026. The budget for Education reaches €11,889.7 million, an increase of 5.7%, and includes €176 million for work on educational infrastructure, both for new construction and for refurbishment and improvement of existing schools.
However, the information released by the Andalusian government does not show a specific allocation for Manilva’s second secondary school. The existence of an overall allocation for educational infrastructure does not mean that the new school in Manilva can be included in it, although there is hope that part of that allocation could be used to launch the preliminary design.
The Budget includes €44.04 million for infrastructure, works and equipment in schools in the province, including the continuation of work on the new secondary schools in Soliva, La Cala del Moral and Benalmádena Pueblo; the replacement of the schools Intelhorce (Málaga), Pablo Ruiz Picasso in Fuengirola, and Nuestra Señora de los Remedios in Cártama, as well as the drafting and updating of projects for other unspecified schools.
A 2023 promise still waiting to become a project
The commitment to seek European funds is an avenue the Junta proposes to study in order to finance construction, but it is not yet a financial guarantee and does not allow a timetable for the work to be set.
As was already explained at this Friday’s meeting, before work can begin it will be necessary to resolve the question of the land, obtain favourable technical reports, prepare the programme of requirements and the preliminary design, fund and tender the drafting of the basic project and then draw up the execution project and put the works out to tender.
Therefore, the announcement that European funding will be sought will need to be made concrete in the coming months if progress is to be made towards building an infrastructure that Manilva has been demanding for years.
The Andalusian Minister for Economy, Finance and European Funds and number two for Málaga alongside Juanma Moreno, Carolina España, came to Manilva last May for a party event at which she publicly committed to building a new secondary school for Manilva. The People’s Party figure told those attending that «we have to build a new secondary school for Manilva and we are going to do it», also asserting that her party’s Andalusian government «does what it promises».
We recall that it was Carolina España herself who officially announced in November 2023 that the new school already had a budget allocation in the 2024 Andalusian accounts and that to date, two years later, there is as yet neither a project nor a tender.
Nearly 1,400 pupils in a school designed for half that number
The need for a second secondary school stems from the situation at IES Las Viñas, which was designed for around 700 students and currently has nearly 1,400. The lack of space has forced the school to keep prefabricated classrooms and to adapt areas such as the library, the laboratory and the canteen for use as ordinary classrooms.
The education community has been demanding a definitive solution for years. This Friday’s meeting has made it possible to set out new steps to try to unblock the file, but the absence of a specific allocation in the 2027 budget once again leaves funding as one of the main unknowns.
Manilva now has the commitment given by the provincial delegate to seek European resources to make the project a reality. It remains to be seen when this route is made concrete and whether it will allow the second secondary school to stop being a promise and begin to become an infrastructure with funding, a project and defined deadlines.
https://youtu.be/VIeNyZQ081M
Part of the event at which reference was made to the new secondary school.
