A total of 609 schools will be intervened through the National Operation Center for Schools 2023 (CON Escuelas), which is developed with inter-institutional participation, as announced by the Ministry of Education (Meduca) after presenting its work plan for the next school year 2023, which includes the intervention of works that will positively impact a student enrollment of 359,442 students.
Meduca’s engineering director, Marcela Herrera, assured that minor repair and maintenance work will be carried out with items from the Fund for Equity and Quality of Education (FECE), in 230 educational centers. With the maintenance budget, 379 schools will be served and it is planned to carry out these tasks before the start of the 2023 school year.
He stressed that these are prefabricated classrooms that are installed very quickly and once they arrive in the area where they will be located (difficult access) they can be installed or built in two weeks.
The NOC School 2023 team will be made up of entities from the Central Government, technical boards (governors, representatives, mayors and organized communities) and public and private alliances.
For her part, the Minister of Education Maurja Gorday de Villalobos said that with the reactivation of the NOC Escuelas, 90% of the educational centers will be ready for the start of classes on March 6, 2023.
He specified that they have an investment of approximately $4 million from Meduca, however; They have contributions from the business sector and other areas that once the project is completed, the final investment figure will be known.
The 2022 back-to-school minor repair program successfully closed after reaching 98% of the planned work since its inception, in an effort to keep schools in good condition and classrooms comfortable.
The Meduca specified that the educational region of Bocas de Toro will attend 40 schools, in Chiriquí 70, Coclé 60, Colón 40, the Emberá 13, Guna Yala 20 and Ngäbe Buglé 21 counties, in Darién 34, Herrera 49, Los Santos 42 , Panama Center 36, Panama East 22, Panama North 20, Panama West 51, San Miguelito 23 and Veraguas 68.
