"It's a real shame." It is the complaint of a mother affected by the lack of school transportation in special education centers in the province of Valencia, who was interviewed this morning in "Les Notícies del Matí", from À Punt, at the doors of the La Encarnación center from Torrent. The families have reported that, for the second consecutive day, there have been problems with school transportation and in an interview, the mother explained that the vehicle that arrived "was not adapted and contained glass inside."
The lack of school transport yesterday affected a total of 1,080 students from ten schools and institutes in the province of Valencia. The Department of Education reported that 14 of the 197 buses in the entire province of Valencia had not run their routes, which had affected the students of five special education centers, three institutes and two schools.
In all cases, the service corresponds to the same lot, awarded to the Valencia V5 School UTE and the Monbus company. For this reason, this morning the regional Secretary of Education, Daniel McEvoy, met with representatives of the UTE to explain to them that disciplinary proceedings will be opened against them for non-compliance with the contract yesterday and in the transport this Tuesday morning. The company's commitment is to restore transportation on the return trip this afternoon, to which McEvoy points out that "if this were not the case, we would have to take other types of measures with the collaboration of our legal office."
Yesterday the Valencian Administration had already contacted to have the problem resolved, since, as sources from the Campanar department stressed to Europa Press, they were told that the situation had to be resolved "immediately."
Likewise, according to sources to which EFE has had access, the company awarded the contract for these 14 affected routes informed the Ministry that the "duly hired" drivers who were supposed to cover these services had not shown up at the position yesterday morning "because circumstances beyond the control" of the UTE, and this meant that these services could not be started correctly, neither in time nor in form.
The company also assured that "it is using all the means at its disposal" to comply with the contract, with a sufficient number of drivers, companions and vehicles.
School transportation was the second problem added to the start of the day, since numerous primary and early childhood centers reported the lack of teachers at the beginning of the school year. The STEPV teachers union warned that in the award last Thursday "only vacancies and very few substitutions were offered" and this has meant that many centers "do not have the full staff to serve all the students who have entered the classrooms today."
