9,000 schoolchildren return to classrooms in Benidorm in "absolutely safe" centers

Around 9,000 schoolchildren in the 2nd cycle of Early Childhood, Primary, Secondary Education and post-compulsory education in Benidorm will return to classrooms in "absolutely safe" educational centers as of today, as the mayor, Toni Pérez, has remarked. Together with the mayor of the area, Maite Moreno, has attended the start of the 2020/2021 school year at CEIP Gabriel Miró.

Toni Pérez has indicated that this first school day has started "with absolute normality" and with "many extraordinary measures" due to the situation generated by Covid-19. In this sense, he stressed that "the educational communities" of each and every one of the Benidorm centers "have been working to adapt with protocols and contingency plans to be able to best serve" the reality with which the course begins school 2020/2021. In this sense, it has influenced that this work has been constant and uninterrupted, since the last instructions from the Ministry arrived last Thursday at 9:00 p.m.

The mayor recalled that the Benidorm City Council has also adopted "special measures" for the new academic year, such as the reinforcement of cleaning and disinfection of the facilities of the educational centers, with a new stable and permanent staff during the class schedule, as well as the accesses and environments of each of them. Prevention measures have also been adopted in school transport, such as daily disinfection of vehicles and the allocation of seats.

In addition, the City Council has carried out "actions that have made it possible to improve the facilities and infrastructures of the educational centers for this school year with a direct investment of more than 400,000 euros", which has also reached municipal nursery schools that resumed their teaching and face-to-face activity for its students on July 1. Another 400,000 euros will be added to this investment in the coming months, once all the improvements programmed by the City Council for the main building of the CEIP Leonor Canalejas are executed.

On the first day of the school year, to which the students will gradually be incorporated throughout the week, Toni Pérez insisted that the return to the classroom is being done "with all the guarantees and safety regulations"; and added that "we have to lose fear" since there is "an educational need in our minors" and "we also have to attend to their socialization".

Investment in student transportation

The mayor has also reported on the investment made by the City Council to subsidize transportation to the students of the Salt de l’Aigua school complex and the IES Mediterrània. Specifically, the City Council will provide this course 157,794.40 euros. With this amount, 100% of the cost of transporting Infant and Primary students from Gabriel Miró and Mestre Gaspar López schools is covered, excluded from regional transport, while most of the cost of the journey is subsidized to Secondary students from the five IES in the city: Pere Maria Orts i Bosch, l'Almadrava, Beatriu Fajardo de Mendoza, Bernat de Sarrià and Mediterrània.