The representatives of the Association of Mothers and Parents of Students of the IES Guaza, known as the institute of the barracks, trust that the rapprochement reached between the Ministry of Education and the company Proyecon Galicia to resume the works of the center that will replace the IES Guaza is reflected “as soon as possible” and that the works are relaunched “for real” after two years practically stopped after the construction company requested a modification of the project and an upward revision of the budget.
The building should have been completed in January 2020, and currently a little more than 50% of the work has been executed by the winning company, which won the tender with an economic offer 31% lower than the amount established in the specifications ( 5,885,885 euros compared to 8,567,375 euros, without IGIC, which appeared in the tender rules).
“After so many unfulfilled promises and failed announcements, let’s hope that this time will be the final one and that the center will end once and for all, so that our children do not continue to suffer in the barracks,” Marieta Sierra, vice president of the AMPA, told this newspaper. “We ask is that they put themselves in the place of the students and teachers and give as much haste as possible to shorten the deadlines and end this nightmare,” he said.
The Association of Mothers and Fathers of Students asks for a “serious commitment” to finish the building. “We are expectant,” says Sierra, who is waiting for “some sign” from the Ministry of Education. “It does not seem logical to me that we have not been given any information since we had the last contact in February by videoconference,” lamented the vice president and spokesperson of the AMPA.
Socialist deputy Yolanda Medoza told this newspaper on Wednesday that the negotiations held in recent months between the technicians of the Ministry and the company had “come to fruition.” The aronera parliamentarian pointed out that there is already a “free way” for the pace of work to increase from September, after both parties agreed to partially modify the project.
The state of the IES Guaza facilities, built 19 years ago based on prefabricated modules to alleviate the serious lack of school places in the South, has generated numerous protests and mobilizations in recent years by students, parents and teachers . The floor moves when you walk, the walls vibrate, rainwater seeps into the classrooms and forces classes to be suspended, the pipes in the only two bathrooms burst frequently, lamps have fallen and when the wind blows strongly the roof sheets have come to peel off.
Everything indicates that the next course, which will coincide with the twentieth anniversary of the opening of the center, will be the last among barracks. But it will not be an easy year, since the number of students will increase to 600 when entering the first year of high school, which forces to establish a morning shift for the first and second year of Secondary, and in the afternoon for the third and fourth year. of the aforementioned bachelor.
The Minister of Education, Manuela Armas, admitted at the end of May in Parliament that the IES Guaza and the conclusion of the work of the new institute occupied “the highest” in her agenda of concerns.
