Barcelona City Council admits air conditioning problems in 30 kindergartens and will repair 15 this summer.

BarcelonaIn June, it took its toll on Barcelona's kindergartens: faults in the air conditioning systems have multiplied the effects of the heat in the classrooms, where in many cases temperatures reached almost thirty degrees. The inability to respond to this problem, beyond distributing penguins—portable air conditioners—to the affected centers, has forced the City Council to process an emergency plan to address it.

This Friday, the council announced that it will invest two million euros in improvement projects at 66 schools. This includes maintaining the air conditioning systems at fifteen centers and removing rubber flooring from 39 kindergartens, in addition to resolving various breakdowns. "Although all 105 daycare centers in Barcelona are air-conditioned," incidents of varying degrees of severity have been identified in around thirty centers. "It's mathematically normal for this to happen, given there are so many," she observed. The solution so far has been to distribute 110 penguins among these homes, noting that in five kindergartens, the air conditioning system will have to be completely replaced because it is "completely broken." A two-year-old boy suffered heat stroke, which was ultimately not serious. The councilor distanced himself from this incident and asserted that "heat stroke has not been diagnosed in either workers or children at the daycare centers." However, the manager of the Barcelona Municipal Institute of Education (IMEB), Jordi Sánchez, admitted to two cases—a child and a teacher—in which they had to personally investigate possible heat strokes, but which did not require medical assistance.

Sánchez stated that work on all daycare centers will begin at the end of July and said that the commitment is to have all of them completed by the start of the new school year: "Or at least most of them," he clarified. Therefore, he does not rule out the possibility that some schools may have to continue using the penguins "for a while."

Full stop on rubber flooring

Another concern the administration wants to address as part of the program to improve municipal daycare facilities relates to the rubber flooring. Rabell explained that the deterioration of this material causes it to crumble into small pieces and poses a danger if a child puts it in their mouths: "Although no incidents of this type have occurred, we have chosen to err on the side of caution," she said. For this reason, a project to remove these floors has been launched in 39 centers. It will begin in July and is expected to last until the fall in some cases.