Children will be hot in the coming months because temperatures have risen and public centers are not prepared to deal with heat waves. There is no alternative. The public centers are the only public buildings that have not been equipped with air conditioning because they were supposed to be empty during the two months of high temperatures. But in recent years, from two months exceeding maximums of 28th in the classrooms, it has gone to four, and this year it is believed that five months of heat will be reached, which is fully into the school year.
In addition, many facilities, oriented to the south to gain light and heat in winter, are old and lack suitable insulation, windows, carpentry or roofs. And the interventions until recently were aimed at heating. The European REACT funds used by the Department of Education, 102 million euros, have been intended to improve energy efficiency in educational centers, intervening in general facilities, to improve insulation (essential for air conditioning), but to install heating.
So, when the heat arrives, the Government’s immediate objective is not to air-condition the centers but to improve thermal comfort, to take measures to reduce the sensation of heat. And plan in the future already with the slogan of heat, prioritizing the reform of buildings.
One of the department’s measures is to allow principals to change class schedules if necessary. The children’s entry and exit times will remain the same (the high temperature protocol makes it possible to shorten the time at school exceptionally or to provide for emergency actions in the event of exhaustion or heat stroke). But, if those extremes are not reached, what happens during school hours will depend on what the management organizes.
For the department, each center is unique, so those in charge will know how to better protect and ensure the well-being of students. If, for example, during the hours of sunshine the group occupying the south-facing classrooms goes to the space dedicated to the climate shelter or the playground. And if he continues classes or suspends them. Or is it preferable for part of the students to visit a museum. This will pose a new organizational challenge to management and teachers after they changed the timetables in January, halfway through the year, due to the reduction of teaching hours, and after three years of organizational instability due to covid.
The centers will know in advance if the heat wave reaches them. Education, thanks to an agreement with Meteocat, will warn them with an alert three days before a risk forecast due to high temperatures. The established thresholds, of different degrees depending on the thermal sensation produced by the humidity, are 29º inside the school (33º outside) for the educational area of ​​Maresme-Vallès Oriental. Higher than 30º (34º outside) in Barcelona, ​​Barcelonès, Camp de Tarragona, and Baix Llobregat. From 32º (36º outside) in Vallés Occidental, Penedès, or Alt Pirineu and Aran. 34º in Girona and Lleida (38º outside). And 35º in central Catalonia (39º outside).
Previously, the center will receive a document that it will have to fill out with the technical conditions of the building and its courtyards, so that it helps it locate indoor and outdoor spaces with better conditions of well-being.
The public kindergartens and primary schools in Barcelona, ​​owned by the City Council, will have two fans per classroom and a common air-conditioned space, in addition to the teachers’ room (with a cold pump, for example), They will enable the possibility of cross ventilation, and they will have water points and awnings for the patios. The use of cultural and sports facilities (libraries, museums, sports centers) will also be offered, as happened during the pandemic. But not all of these measures are guaranteed in institutes or VET centers (they are owned by the Generalitat). And not outside of Barcelona either.
Well-being will depend on the public investments made by both Education and the municipality. According to the Department, only 16% of schools (252) and 41% of high schools (287) have an air-conditioned common space (the dining room, the library or a multipurpose room). These are newly created centres, with modern regulations, or they have some type of air conditioning paid for by the town hall, the center itself or by the parents, as explained by Councilor Josep Gonzà lez-Cambray in Parliament. Or they are in modules because, paradoxically, the thousand barracks still in existence are already installed with air systems.
In the short term, to improve comfort on hot days, a series of measures have been planned such as distributing fans (about 2,500 that will go to several centers, explaining two per classroom) and creating a sheltered space in 100 centers (5 million euros), in which it has prioritized children’s schools (20), special education (11) and high school buildings built between 1979 and 2007, in hot areas. He predicts that in five years all schools will have, at least, an air-conditioned common space.
In addition, it will “authorize” the town councils to make conditions, since the administration does not have resources. Kindergarten and primary schools are municipally owned, but the reforms of the works correspond to the Generalitat according to the Catalan education law. In any case, 50 councils have already requested it, including Barcelona, ​​l’Hospitalet de Llobregat, Torres de Segre, el Prat de Llobregat or Sitges.
