The Department of Education of the Community of Madrid has sent a Heat Wave Warning and Prevention Plan to non-university educational centers that includes a series of measures to reduce the effects of heat on people, such as avoiding exposure to the sun , drink water even if you are not thirsty or avoid the consumption of sugary drinks or copious meals.

The eleven-page document, which ‘El País’ has advanced and to which EFE has had access, establishes a series of preventive measures and recommendations, to avoid possible environments of discomfort or thermal stress derived from unforeseen situations and limited in time associated to meteorology, such as heat waves or exceptionally high temperatures, in non-university educational centers in the region.

Among other measures, it is advisable, as far as possible, to avoid or reduce the use of spaces where a lot of heat accumulates and to move activities to the cooler areas of the building indoors (usually those facing north and northwest of the building). center) and the shaded ones outdoors.

Another recommendation is aimed at favoring the natural ventilation of spaces, facilitating the entry of air into areas that are in the shade during the coolest hours of the day, and it is also recommended to irrigate areas exposed to the sun at night.

With a preventive nature, it is suggested to reinforce the maintenance of awnings, blinds or windows and enable shaded areas and reduced radiation, among others.

The CCOO has denounced the high temperatures in educational centers in recent years and in June of last year it managed to get the Labor Inspectorate to make a request to the Administration to guarantee the safety and health of workers in all educational centers.

However, the secretary of Education of CCOO Madrid, Isabel Galvín, considers the council’s plan “absolutely insufficient”, which does not include any commitment or budgetary allocation, something essential to guarantee, for example, that there are personnel to water at night .

Other of these “anecdotal” measures involve “security risks”, such as the suggestion to ventilate the classrooms at night.

Galvín considers that the plan should include the air conditioning of the centers and the installation of roofs or groves in the patios and sports areas, and warns that at the end of last year there was a “significant” increase in heat strokes in the educational centers.