Seventeen years with more than 900 barracks in Catalan schools

BarcelonaTwo decades ago, the then Education Minister, Josep Bargalló, stated that Catalan schools only had to "have the prefabricated modules that were necessary", but he also made a very clear warning: "We will never stop having prefabricated classrooms". At that time, the number of barracks in schools and institutes in Catalonia was 643. Since then, the new ministers who have led the ministry, of three different political colours, have been repeating this same message at the beginning of each school year with minor variations.

There have also been reproaches and warnings, such as when in 2011 the minister Irene Rigau recognised that the Generalitat would need eight years to remove the 1,057 modules that were in Catalan schools at that time and accused the previous government of a lack of investment; and also small medals, like when in 2022 the councilor Josep González Cambray celebrated that "for the first time in 15 years" the Catalan educational system had dropped below a thousand barracks - at that time there were 975.

Be that as it may, and although in the last three years there have been Catalans, they have had more than 900 barracks for seventeen years.

This year there are almost 400 public centers with modules, which means a total of 937 barracks in the entire educational system, as detailed in a response from the Government to the Official Gazette of the Parliament which was picked up by ACN. The same interpellation also explains that 18 new barracks have been installed this year with an investment of 4.3 million euros and that it is intended to remove 43, an operation that will cost almost 638,000 euros.

Among these hundreds of schools and institutes with barracks there are centres that have one because they are undergoing renovation, and institutes that have never had their own building and have therefore lived their entire history in prefabricated modules.

Education sources insist that the modules are "temporary solutions" and that they have the "quality requirements comparable to a definitive construction solution". In fact, this is also confirmed by the AFFAC, which groups together the majority of family associations in public centres: "The right to education is equally guaranteed, but we must move forward, and this provisional situation must be reversed because it is costing us more money to maintain the barracks than to build a school," argues the president of the AFFAC, Lidón Gasull.

This extra cost is also denounced by the Cervelló Institute, which has spent 18 years entirely in barracks waiting for land to be obtained to build the public centre. With nine barracks and 300 students, it is one of the centres in Catalonia with the most prefabricated modules. "It is a huge financial expense. When it is cold, they cool down very quickly and it is very difficult to heat them, and in summer we can reach 38-40 degrees; therefore, heating and air conditioning are always needed," explains the director of the centre, Fran Rodríguez. He explains that some of its modules are the same as when the institute opened. "Although we keep them in good condition, there is more and more deterioration that is driving up the costs," he warns.

Although this is not the case with the Cervelló institute, because it is the only secondary school in this municipality of Baix Llobregat, Gasull explains that, sometimes, the fact that a centre has barracks can generate "a certain stigma" that generates doubts for families when it comes to choosing a school. choose a school during school pre-registration. "I insist that education is equal, but it is true that, especially for families who have to access the educational system for the first time, the barracks can be a reason that stops them from choosing a public school," laments the president of AFFAC. Gasull insists that it should be Educació and the town councils who ensure "that families are given security and that the commitment to build these schools in a permanent location is fulfilled."

Born to stay in barracks

The Education Department explains that the department uses the barracks for "specific schooling needs, sudden growth or population movements that must be able to be met with a flexible resource" and also as "temporary solutions while a new center is not built or a major expansion is made."

They also recognize that "once the need for which the modules were installed has been satisfied, there are centers that ask to be able to keep them." Here there is still one more casuistry: the centers that were born knowing that they would always be in barracks. This is the case of the 9 Escalones School in Barcelona, ​​​​which was born in 2016 entirely with a modular construction that has been expanded as courses have been added.

In this case, the AFA of the center explains that the fact of having a modular school is not a problem. "We already knew this from the beginning," says Naiara Gálvez, one of the members of the AFA who also explains how this model has certain advantages such as the air conditioning of the spaces or the possibility of connecting classrooms of different courses.

However, they criticise that in recent years they have suffered from a "lack of planning and maintenance and execution" that has caused problems such as the lack of space to have a library, constant flooding of the courtyard or the fact that initially the centre did not have a kitchen and it was the AFA who had to finance it. "For us, the commitment to a modular school is good, but it can only be positive if the planned deadlines are met and good maintenance of the facilities is carried out," criticises Gálvez.