The return to classes at IES Las Viñas has begun amid anger and uncertainty among the school community. After months of protests, the new school year has started without the promises made by Miguel Ángel Briones, the Territorial Delegate for Educational Development of the Junta de Andalucía in Málaga, having been fulfilled.
Broken promises and unbuilt works
Families recall that the Territorial Delegation announced commitments to resolve the school’s problems, including tendering urgent works to waterproof the roofs, repair skylights and carry out various other repairs, at an estimated cost of 220,000 euros, as well as assurances that the process for building the long-awaited second secondary school would be speeded up.
However, the start of a new school year once again highlights the shortcomings in education that the municipality continues to face, with works still not carried out and a school that remains under severe structural pressure, housing nearly 1,400 students in facilities originally designed for 700.
Makeshift classrooms in the assembly hall and a lack of furniture
The lack of resources has been evident since the first day. According to complaints passed on by several families to this newspaper, some students have started the school year without chairs or desks. As a result, a class has had to be improvised in the assembly hall, a space in the basement of the school, where students have to endure high temperatures.
Midday traffic chaos
The problems inside the school have been compounded by gridlock outside at midday finishing time. The large number of vehicles arriving to collect students has caused heavy traffic jams, with significant delays for those trying to enter or leave the car park area.
United institutional front: Manilva and Casares join forces
On the institutional front, the mayor of Manilva, Mario Jiménez, met today with the mayor of Casares, Juan Luis Villalón, with the aim of continuing to join forces in their demands to the Regional Ministry of Education. Both mayors reiterated the urgent need to make the construction of the second secondary school a reality to serve the student population of both towns.
Parents’ associations secure a dialogue: the Delegate will visit the town
This morning, the parents’ associations (AMPAs) managed to make contact with the office of the Education delegate, Miguel Ángel Briones. His department has confirmed that the delegate himself plans to visit the town at the end of this month or the beginning of next.
The school’s new management team faces a year full of challenges, and with the support of all the families and of the wider school community, which is more united and stronger than ever, they will surely succeed in gradually smoothing out the logistical problems of the first day.
The school community warns that it will remain firm in its demands until definitive solutions are found, and asks families to join the various AMPAs at their children’s schools to stay informed of every development and to contribute in this way to the fight for better education in the municipality.
