2% of schools nationwide have infrastructure problems

This morning the Minister of Education Maruja Gorday de Villalobos gave her 2021 Budget Execution report to the National Assembly and revealed that 155 schools, equivalent to 2% of the schools in the country, are not yet ready to start face-to-face classes.

Villalobos said that this 2% of campuses are giving classes in other modalities (virtual, by module, blended) while the adaptations to the infrastructures are made.

Among these schools, according to the Deputy Minister of Infrastructure of the Ministry of Education, Ricardo Sánchez, they have two specific cases that are in legal situations that are being resolved with the insurers; these are the Stela Sierra school and the Veraguas IPT. In the case of the STELA Sierra, he stated that they are carrying out repair and maintenance work; while in the IPT of Veraguas it is a construction that will restart in the near future

Meanwhile, the minister highlighted that in the fifth week of classes they already have 98.9% of operational schools, highlighting that this was possible thanks to the fact that in 2021 an execution of 99% of the assigned and modified budget was achieved, which allowed the creation of spaces and routes to start the face-to-face year.

Villalobos assured that according to the report of the operations center for the maintenance of schools they already have 85% progress and stressed that this is a process that will continue during the month of April so that a maintenance route is installed, in addition He called on the educational community to make good use of the Fund for Equity and Quality of Education (FECE).