The schools are the only public buildings that are not air-conditioned. Its facilities are old, facing south to gain light and heat in winter, and they must be renovated before efficient and sustainable systems can be installed, such as solar panels. Until now it was believed that it was not urgent to air-condition the classrooms, at least for the cold, since two and a half months of summer are empty. But the high temperatures of the past course and the forecasts for this one have made this need emerge (and the poor condition of the facilities).
The point is that only a hundred centers, out of a total of 3,500, are built with thermal comfort criteria, according to the Department of Education. And another 300 have been reformed.
Despite these needs, Catalan schools have been left out of the rain of millions of euros from specific European funds to reform public buildings.
Spain has received one billion for the so-called Program to Promote the Rehabilitation of Public Buildings (Pirep), of which Catalonia will manage some 184 million. Most of the projects presented will reform libraries, auditoriums, cultural centers, socio-community spaces, swimming pools, sports centers, spaces for young people, nature interpretation centers or will be used to reform the town hall building.
Only about 9.9 million go to schools. Specifically, one, to the infant school; one, to primary; one, to the rural; three, to institutes; and one, to vocational training centers.
The Pirep has the objective of adapting the facilities (roofs, facades, enclosures, electricity) of public buildings, excluding residences, to reduce the consumption of non-renewable energy and install efficient energy systems.
Last August, the head of the Ministry of Education and FP, Pilar AlegrÃa, announced that she would distribute 200 million euros to reform schools so that children would not be largely forgotten about the climate emergency. But the Government decided to concentrate the entirety of Pirep in a single ministry, that of Transport, Mobility and Agenda. He created two rehabilitation plans without defining purpose. The one of the city councils, with a line of 600 million, approximately, and the one of the autonomies, with 400 million.
From the regional fund, the Government has 78.7 million. It has distributed them among its departments of Health, Culture, Social Rights, Universities, Justice, Interior, Climate Action and Education. This last ministry, with 6.5 million, will renovate three institutes: Alexandre Deulofeu, located in Figueres (3 million), Dertosa, in Tortosa, (2.8 million) and Antoni de Martà i Franquès, in Tarragona (0. 7 million).
As for the Pirep program for municipalities, of the 600 million available, a sixth has been awarded, in two different lines, to Catalan municipalities (105.5 million). Of these, 3.4 go to schools: Cunit, to rehabilitate Les Marietes kindergarten (217,000 euros); Montornès del Vallès, for the Sant Sadurnà school (one million) and Albagés for the Mare de Déu de Montserrat rural school (452,000). In addition, Blanes is building a state-of-the-art FP center and has obtained 1.7 million to complete it.
Some councils consulted justify the absence of school projects due to the technical complexity of the call and the lack of time to prepare them (when they did have others already designed in the drawer), and due to the short execution times (some works must finish in September of 2024 and others, in 2026).
Other city councils allege that the structural reforms of the schools should be financed not by the city council, despite being the owner, but by the Generalitat, according to the Catalan education law. So it was not up to them to ask for funds to reform the schools in their towns.
The nursery and primary schools are municipally owned and the institutes are owned by the Generalitat. Article 164 of the law says that “the Department is competent in the works and actions of reform, expansion or adaptation and improvement of these educational centers, and finances them”, referring to primary schools. But maintenance corresponds to local entities. And they remember that it was the department that paid for the Heura project that wired all the educational centers to access Wi-Fi.
In any case, Educació has already announced that it will “authorize” the municipalities that “under the principle of cooperation have requested or request to air-condition the centers of their patrimonial ownership.” And that will be under criteria established by Education. Ministry sources said that there are already some 50 local entities that have expressed their decision to carry out works in schools with their own funds.
