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CostaBlancaPeople 17th September - 23rd September 2024
17TH SEPTEMBER - 23RD SEPTEMBER 2024 - EDITION 1061
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School starts without places for 200 children in Orihuela Costa
Orihuela has started the school year with 12,098 students, 1,628 fewer than last year, although the figure is provisional because it will vary with the last registrations that are still taking place. Last year there were 13,726 enrolled, 1,074 more than in 2022. However, in Orihuela Costa
alone there are about 200 children without a school place. The two schools - Los Dolses and Playas de Orihuela - are overwhelmed and simply cannot cope with the demand. Meanwhile, as previously reported, the new centre Number 20, which will be located on a plot of land on
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Níspero Street on the Orihuela coast, parallel to the road that connects the La Zenia shopping centre and the Villamartín golf course is still not a reality and looks set to remain that way for several months. Despite the high mobility of local students - who leave the school at any time during the school year depending on their family situation, as many are expats - both public schools on the coast have used up all their available space to accommodate more classrooms and the ratios - number of students per group - are the highest in the Valencian Community along with those in Torrevieja. The expansion of Los Dolses, which has been overcrowded since 2018, is still pending. The dissatisfaction with the lack of places, infrastructure and its maintenance is such that the educational community does
not rule out carrying out new mobilisations, as was already done in mid-June. The number of students who started classes last Monday is, by educational stage, Infant 1,829 students, Primary 4,012, Secondary 3,457, Baccalaureate 1,240 and in Vocational Training 1,560. These figures were reported by the Councillor for Education, Vicente Pina, who inaugurated the school year at the CEIP Virgen de Los Desamparados together with the Mayor of Orihuela, Pepe Vegara and other councillors. The opposition Councillor, Quique Montero, regretted that
the third school on the coast is not yet ready, and recalled that, despite the announcements in the media, the summer school could not be held. As if that were not enough, he continued, the educational centres of Orihuela “are starting the school year with difficulties due to the inability to tender the maintenance contract for them.” (See story on page 4).