Velez-Malaga parents consider protests over school huts

VELEZ-MALAGA’S Las Naciones school parents are thinking of protesting by not taking their children to school in September following the arrival of two more temporary huts on the grounds.

As parents watched on in dismay, the two new huts were put into place confirming that in September there will be 14 huts to house 350 of the 575 pupils registered at the infant and primary school for the 2015-2016 school year.

Although a €3.3 million project for a permanent primary school building has been in the air for six years and the Education Board promised the work would be put out to tender weeks ago, it appears that once again all but the 225 three to five-year-olds housed in the infant block built in 2009 will once again be stuck in huts as of September.

“We know proceedings take time, but we’re fed up with broken promises, now the council has told us that the public agency that has to take charge of the project has no leader appointed. If the project is supposed to have been drawn up and the money is available, why don’t they just get on with it?” Salvemos Las Naciones group spokeswoman and pupil’s mother Priscila Acosta asked.

“We’re working parents, and all we want is the best for our children, but under the current conditions at the school we know they’re not getting the best education because there is insufficient space, they have to take turns in the dining room and there is no playground or sports ground,” she said.

With 75 new pupils due to start at the school in September the situation is likely to worsen, parents complained.

Meanwhile the local council insisted that the Junta de Andalucia regional government knew the centre is a top priority and promised to keep putting pressure on for the school to be built.