The barracks of the institute of Guaza They are already history. 21 years later of its “provisional” opening to face the population boom of the South at the beginning of the century, the last educational center built entirely with prefabricated modules in the Canary Islands will not open its doors next Monday to inaugurate the 2023-24 school year.
In its place will finally be the IES Parque La Reina, the largest institute in the Archipelago, with 14,126 meters of urbanization (9,620 of them built), distributed over three floors and a semi-basement, where 800 students will study and more than 70 teachers will teach.
After a delay of almost three and a half years over the scheduled time to complete the work, which was practically stopped for two years due to a modification of the project requested by the construction company and the pandemic, next Monday the presentation of the first-year students will take place. of ESO, an event that will continue the next day with the students of the second, third and fourth years of ESO, as well as the first and second years of Baccalaureate. On Wednesday the 13th the school day will begin for all levels.
“We are happy, although the general feeling of mothers and fathers is a certain disbelief after so many years of struggle, so until we see the boys and girls inside, we do not believe it,” María told DIARIO DE AVISOS yesterday. José Flores, president of the AMPA, who, after thanking the support received from mothers, fathers, teachers and the director of IES Guaza, regretted that “there are people who wear medals after so many years have passed, more than 20, to something so necessary and that is a right of students and families.”
The new educational center, in which almost 8 million euros have been invested, has nothing to do with the precarious facilities of the thirty classrooms in Guaza in which thousands of students from the South have been trained for more than two decades. Students will no longer have to suffer unbearable temperatures, suspend classes due to leaks when it rains, nor will floors or walls vibrate, nor will bathroom pipes burst anymore.
PROTESTS
The technical deficiencies provoked numerous protests from mothers, fathers, teachers and students, who intensified their complaints as a result of the delay in the work of the new center and tired of seeing how the deadlines and forecasts transmitted to them by those responsible for the Ministry were not met. of Education.
The new building will have 31 units and will have spaces for computing, music and art, among other subjects, as well as a library, technology workshop, laboratories, language classroom and cafeteria. It also has a covered pavilion, a large central patio, assembly hall, wrestling arena, orchard, garden areas, play areas and parking. In recent weeks, the Arona City Council has reorganized traffic and resurfaced the area to improve accessibility.
In addition, it will enable an exclusive parking area for school buses with the aim of not taking up space on the roads and avoiding queues and delays at school start and end times.
