Unfinished walls and a classroom divided with furniture: this is how a charter school in Palma inaugurates the 0-3 level

PalmaThe Sagrat Cor school in Palma is launching a new educational cycle this academic year: for the first time, the center is welcoming children from 0 to 3 years old. However, the start of the new cycle has arrived before the facilities are finished. The classrooms that are to house the youngest children are still under construction and the playground assigned to them is also not, according to the families, in a condition to be used, with many children who are still learning to walk. This has been explained by families from the center to ARA Balears, which has been able to see photographs that confirm the inadequate state of the spaces.

The situation has generated indignation among the families of the children and the workers. The two classrooms that are to accommodate the youngest ones are not yet finished and, for this reason, the center has provisionally set up a single large classroom divided into two zones using furniture. On one side there are six babies from 0 to 1 year old and, on the other, 15 children from 1 to 3 years old from the mixed classroom. This is the solution with which the center has started the school year while the work on the definitive classrooms is completed, as the families have explained to ARA Balears.

But it is outside that the situation worries educators and families the most. The new playground for 0 to 3-year-olds is not yet finished being paved and, as they denounce, the floor is not suitable for small children. The photographs provided to ARA Balears show an enclosed space, with elements still pending completion and various slopes that, according to the families, can be dangerous for children who are just starting to walk. They themselves describe the playground as "a prison". The educators have informed the management in writing that they will not take the children there while it remains in these conditions. This forces the children to stay inside the classroom or, if they have to go outside, to use the playground for children aged 3 to 6. In this case, however, the older ones have less space: to enable the new playground for 0 to 3-year-olds, a part of the area they used until now has been closed off. According to the families, the new enclosure is also not finished and leaves the cement and bricks exposed.

Suitable space?

Given this situation, the families are demanding explanations and questioning whether the nursery school has passed an architectural inspection certifying that the classrooms and the playground could be put into operation. Specifically, they want to know if the spaces met the necessary conditions to begin welcoming children before opening their doors. They also question that the school year has begun while the definitive classrooms are still not finished and the playground for the little ones presents, as they report, deficiencies.

The families frame this situation within the debate over the opening conditions of other charter schools. They recall that some began the school year on the 7th and that the Department of Education has opened a file on them. In the case of Sagrat Cor, what they are denouncing is that the first year of the 0 to 3-year-old cycle has begun when part of the facilities are still under construction and the educators have decided not to use the playground intended for the little ones.