The socialist municipal group in Torrevieja is warning that the information that the mayor has transmitted publicly about the connection of the previous autonomous government with the disappearance of bus routes to Torrevieja institutes is categorically false.
The current General Director of Teaching Centres, Jorge Cabo, is the one who has the power to decide on the elimination of these lines – he already tried to do so with some without success a few months ago, when he held the position of inspector -, a decision that was made in September based on the applications submitted by families during the month of July.
Jorge Cabo already held the position of General Director with the previous autonomous government of the PP, which is now returned to him, and his management was characterised by cuts and the elimination of bus lines under the pretext of the requirements to access transportation scholarships.
They contemplated that the students lived more than three kilometres from the educational centre. The error, as was quickly revealed, was that the measurements had been carried out in a straight line, which meant that students who were expected, for example, to cross buildings or venture across streets, were left without transportation, supposedly expected to cross the middle of the lagoon or the salt flats to be able to access their assigned centre on foot.
With this story behind him, Cabo repeats his position and once again eliminates routes. This time, in the words of the socialist spokesperson, Bárbara Soler, “in connivance with the mayor of Torrevieja, who blatantly blames the previous government to cover up a decision by the Director General that is, without a doubt, unpopular and unfair, but which “has the approval of the Department of Education.”
This situation is being experienced in several centres in the town. Thus, in Torrevigía there have been tense episodes when it was discovered on the first day of the course that routes had been eliminated. For its part, at IES No. 1 Libertas, of the three routes they had last year, a few days ago they were informed that they could only count on one. Finally, the possibility of offering a second line is being considered, putting a complicated decision in the hands of the centre and the AMPA (parent’s association), since it means leaving out some students and not others.
For the socialists, the defence of quality public education is a priority and to this end, access to scholarship school transportation is essential. Many families do not have sufficient income or the parents work, so, the spokesperson points out, “the reality is that these days we are seeing how there are families who, without prior notice, are forced to allow 12- or 13-year-old children to attend alone to the institutes.”
For this reason, Soler demands that the General Director of Teaching Centres and the Councillor José A. Rovira maintain, at least, the lines that the centres already had previously, taking into account the particularities of our town, where the layout of the institutes is not always due to planning by neighbourhoods or zones; Quite the contrary, many of the centres have been built on the outskirts, which makes access to them extremely difficult and makes school transportation essential “that allows our young people not to see their fundamental right to education violated.”
The socialist municipal group has declared its intention to position itself on the side of those affected and will support any initiative that helps these families regain access to school routes that have been arbitrarily taken from them.
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