“It is not up to us to guarantee the correct conditions in the classrooms, but we cannot wait for the Department to react”, explains a parent | Education recommends ventilation, hydration and lowering the blinds but does not have a short-term air conditioning plan
The 2022-23 academic year has started in Catalonia in the same way that the 2021-22 ended last June: with students and teachers desperate for high temperatures -in some cases more than 40ºCand mostly far exceeding the 30ºC– registered in the classrooms. Last June, the centers tried unsuccessfully to get the Department of Education to let them finish classes early or even suspend them. This September, the Ministry has already warned that this option is not possible and has sent schools an action protocol that basically consists of opening the windows, hydrating and avoiding the hours of sun. The Department you don’t have a short-term weatherization plan, as admitted by the Secretary of Education, Patrícia Gomà, in the presentation of the school year. It is planned to draw up a climate emergency plan in the medium and long term.
Given the situation, in some schools, the familieswith the approval of the addresses, have taken action on the matter and have launched buy on your own fans so that the environment in their children’s classrooms is more bearable, although they stress that installing fans is not the solution and they call for more far-reaching measures.
One of these centers is La Concepcion school, in the Eixample of Barcelona. There, after seeing how the boys and girls left class “dripping”, “as if they came out of the pool”, the families were activated. “We asked the management for permission and they agreed to bring fans, preferably tower fans. One per classroom,” explains Miquel Díaz, who this Tuesday brought a fan to the P-4 class where his daughter goes. Other families have done the same in the rest of the classrooms. To such an extent have they been launched that they have out of stock from an Opencor on Calle Aragón.
“The first day we entered the class to drop off the children and in just five minutes our shirts were soaked. The temperature exceeded 30ºC in the first hour, and that the windows were open, but there is a greenhouse effect. The heat was unbearable,” Diaz describes. It was at that moment that the families began to think about it. “It is not up to the families to guarantee that the conditions in the classrooms are correct, but to the Department, but we cannot wait for the ministry to react. We want our children and their teachers to work in optimal conditions,” argues this father.
Teresa Esperabé, from CCOO, emphasizes that families should not be the ones to act on their own: “It should be the Department that provides the necessary material and that guarantees that the temperature in the classrooms is between 17ºC and 27ºC”.
“Conditions are not right”
The director of this infant and primary school, Francesc Grau, cannot avoid agreeing with the parents. “The conditions are not the most appropriate, neither for students nor for teachers.” “We try to get the kids to drink a lot of water, lower the blinds and get cross ventilation, but it’s not enough,” he says. This teacher understands that investment in air conditioning is expensive because there are many educational centers in Catalonia, “but the problem must be solved”, he claims.
At school Patronat Domènech, in Gràcia, the situation is similar. “We were very hot. We didn’t stop sweat. The teacher has told us that we can bring fans, fans and water canteens. I bought a small fan to have on the table,” explains Clara, a sixth-grade student.
The Department also recommends that outdoor activities be carried out outside the hours of maximum sunshine and that shaded areas be sought. But that is not always possible, as this girl relates: “At recess time we are very hot. There is only shade in a third of the patiobut there isn’t room for everyone”. The teachers agree, pointing out that between playground time, physical education and after-school activities in the afternoon there are cases in which children spend more than five hours outdoors, exposed to to the sun.
At the Auró school, on Tuesday they broke records: 40ºC at 12.00. The family association denounced that “while in the Administration buildings the temperature is 27ºC, we have children and teachers in the classrooms at more than 40ºC”. “It is shameful and aberrant that teachers and students have to be at 40º temperature inside the classrooms, with a fan that they barely notice. The children, some dizzy from the heat, wet their heads because they couldn’t take it anymore. Start earlier, yes , but in conditions. We denounce this deplorable situation and we hope it will be solved as soon as possible,” said a mother, María Teresa Simeón Faura, in a letter to El Periódico de Catalunya.
At the Pompeu Fabra school in Vilanova i la Geltrú, temperatures exceeded 32ºC on Tuesday. In a center in Castelldefels, half of the families in a classroom decided to pick up their children at noon and no longer take them. “They come out sweating. An hour in the yard or in the ‘sauna-class’ is not acceptable,” recounted one of the mothers.
The situation is not new. The schools already finished last year suffering. Last June, some thirty addresses and family associations in Barcelona demanded “urgent” measures from the Consorci d’Educació to deal with this problem. They asked for a plan to install air renewal systems in all schools, take urgent measures in the classrooms to establish adequate ventilation systems to keep the temperature within legal limits, and expand shaded areas in the courtyards. So far, there has been no response.
Unions have also been calling for weatherization plans for some time. “We must invest in aerothermal energy and photovoltaic panels in educational centers”, insists Jesús Martín from UGT, who urges Educació to “take advantage of Next Generation funds” and demonstrate that it has “political will”. “Classrooms must be updated to the climatic reality of the 21st century,” added Martín.
In Catalonia, public centers do not have air conditioning. Paradoxically, the centers that are in barracks do have heat pumps that supply cold air in summer and hot air in winter. The Department has already publicly stated that it has no intention of installing air conditioners because it is not a “sustainable” measure.
From the central government, the Ministry of Education and FP announced last August that it is preparing a “climate adaptation” plan for educational centers that will be endowed with more than 200 million euros. This must be agreed together with the autonomous communities, which have the competences in Education.