Children will be hot in the coming months because temperatures will rise and public centers are not prepared to face heat waves. There is no other when you lack resources. Public schools are the only public buildings that are not air conditioned because they were supposed to be empty in the hot months. But, in recent years, from two months exceeding maximum temperatures of 28º in the classroom, it has gone to four, and in this course it is believed that it will reach five months of heat, which is fully part of the school year. And the peaks of high temperatures are getting higher and higher. In June, many schools already have an intensive day, to avoid the heat and it is foreseeable that this measure will be requested by infant and primary schools.
In addition, many facilities, strategically oriented to the south to gain light and heat in winter, are old and lack insulation, windows, carpentry or roofs. And the interventions until recently were allocated to heating. This is demonstrated by the European REACT funds used by the Department of Education. The 102 million euros have been allocated to renovating the general facilities, to improve insulation (which will undoubtedly result in good air conditioning), but the objective, and part of the investment, has been to install heating. These funds have improved nearly 300 centers.
So, when the heat comes, the immediate purpose is not to air-condition the centers but to improve thermal comfort, to reduce the sensation of heat in the students. And plan far-reaching reforms in the future already with the slogan of heat, prioritizing the adequacy of the buildings.
Thus, one of the measures announced today by the Department of Education is to give the addresses freedom to cancel classes if necessary due to a heat spike. The time of entry and exit of children will remain the same, except if temperatures reach high risk levels. In that exceptional case, according to the protocol, families are allowed to pick up their children earlier. Emergency actions are also contemplated in case of exhaustion or heat stroke.
But, if those extremes are not reached, what happens within school hours will depend on what the management organizes. For the department, each center is unique, so those responsible will know how to protect and ensure the well-being of students. And they can decide if, during sunny hours, for example, the group that occupies the south-facing classrooms goes to the space dedicated to the climate shelter or to the patio. And if he continues classes or suspends or postpones them. Or it is preferable that part of the students go out that day, to visit a museum.
This will mean a new organizational challenge for the directors and teachers. New because the schedules have already changed in January, in the middle of the course, due to the reduction in the teaching time of the teachers. And added to the three years of organizational instability due to covid.
In any case, the centers will know in advance if the heat wave reaches them. Education, thanks to an agreement with Meteocat, will warn you with an alert three days before a high temperature risk forecast. The thresholds established are of different degrees depending on the thermal sensation produced by the humidity. They are 29º inside the school (33º outside) for the educational area of Maresme-Vallès Oriental. Higher than 30º (34º outside) in Barcelona, Barcelonés, Camp de Tarragona, and Baix Llobregat. From 32º (36º outside) in Vallés Occidental, Penedès, or Alt Pirineu and Aran. 34º in Girona and Lleida (38º abroad). And 35º in central Catalonia (39º outside).
Previously, the center will receive a document that must be filled out with the technical conditions of the building and its patios, so that it can help it locate indoor and outdoor spaces with better well-being conditions. This is part of a good practice guide that includes ventilating at night, facilitating cross ventilation, lowering people during hot hours and offering water to students.
The objective is that in 5 years the 2,500 centers of the Catalan public network have, at least, one air-conditioned common area, if not the entire school. "This must be understood as the beginning of a path", they maintain in the Department of Education.
Today, only 16% of schools (252) and 41% of institutes (287) have a climate shelter that has been located in the dining room, the library or in a multipurpose room. And they have it because they are newly created centers, already built with modern regulations, or they have some type of air conditioning paid for by the city council, the center itself or by the parents, as reported today in Parliament by the Minister Josep Gonzàlez- Chambray. Or else the classrooms are prefabricated modules because, paradoxically, the thousand still existing barracks are already installed with air systems.
Before the end of the course, Educació plans to set up a refuge space in 100 more centers, for which it will invest 5 million euros. It has prioritized vulnerable students, territories with strong solar impact, and old buildings. The investment will go to nursery schools (20), special education (11) and institutes (70).
The buildings with the worst thermal conditions are those that were built between 1979 and 2007 (there are about 500 pending reform). Those prior to that date have walls that better insulate the temperature. And as for those built after 2007, they already have adequate insulation due to the change in regulations, according to the department.
The reforms in the constructions must be carried out with a sustainability criterion. Before placing photovoltaic panels, the roof or the electrical installation or the insulation of the windows must be repaired.
In addition to the few shelters, awnings, water points, and reforms will be considered to improve cross ventilation. It is also planned to distribute fans. Some 2,500 that, in reality, will go to a few centers, counting that each center must have two per classroom. Budget limitations have coincided with market restrictions and the difficulty of finding fans (as happened with computers during the pandemic).
On the other hand, there are 31 plate installation projects planned for this course, pending the Government's announcement of a plate plan, according to department sources. "We will never have enough resources for everything," says a senior department official, "because the needs are many but now we have started a path" that can be advanced with future budget increases, he adds.
Educació will focus on the secondary buildings that are those of its ownership. It is about 800 centers. They are already cataloged according to three categories of urgency.
Regarding infant and primary schools, it will "authorize" the municipalities to make arrangements with their own budgets.
The nursery and primary schools are municipally owned, but the reforms of the works correspond to the Generalitat as established in article 164 of the Catalan education law. However, due to the difficulties and the emergency, 50 city councils have already requested it, including Barcelona, l'Hospitalet de Llobregat, Torres de Segre, El Prat de Llobregat or Sitges.
