The Department of Education has suspended primary school classes at the CEIP Joaquín Carrión in San Javier on Monday because the heavy rains have affected the school. The director general of Educational Centres and Infrastructure, Luis Gómez, visited the school on Sunday. Classes will resume on Tuesday after the school has been cleaned up. Infant classes are being held as normal because the Infant classrooms are not affected.
Work is currently being carried out at the school replacing the roof, removing asbestos cement and installing solar panels. This is a large-scale project that began last summer and has been delayed, the result of which has been the infiltration into some classrooms of the rains.
The Department of Education contracted the works for the CEIP Joaquín Carrión de San Javier in July 2024 and according to the contract, the work should have been fully completed in October. The company requested an extension, due to the magnitude and complexity of the works, in order to finish it in November.
Staff from of the Ministry of Education have repeatedly stated that the pace of the works does not conform to the planned schedule, a situation that has been communicated on several occasions to the company.
The Ministry is now considering the imposition of penalties on the company, and even whether there is a legal possibility of terminating the contract, for failure to comply with the deadlines, as provided for in the Law on Public Sector Contracts.
This delay has resulted in parts of the work being exposed to the elements, causing damage on several occasions due to the rainfall.
The Ministry has repeatedly demanded that the company implement necessary protection measures and reinforce its work teams. The Minister of Education, Víctor Marín, met with representatives of the company last week to urge them to urgently finish the works.
