The Provincial Director of the Ministry of Education, Vocational Training and Sports (MEFPyD) in Melilla, Elena Fernández Treviño, has announced that all asbestos will be removed from both the Public School of Children and Royal Primary, as well as from the other public educational centers in the city.
Regarding who is going to execute this withdrawal, he explained that “what we are least concerned about at the moment are the competences because both the local government and we are clear that it is a priority, that we have to work on it and we are going to do it, undoubtedly, because the minors and the families and the teachers of those centers take precedence.”
In this regard, she has been convinced that the MEFPyD and the City will be able to decide and agree on who is responsible for carrying out this action but, in any case, she has stressed that, if not, “the Ministry will take charge of the removal of this material.”
“There is no doubt that we have to do it and we are going to do it,” he said, insisting that the issue of competence “is a secondary issue.” “We are going to do it and we are going to withdraw it and the priority will undoubtedly be to start with the Royal College,” he said, adding that the work done in other schools is much simpler and could be done at the same time.
Waste census
As explained, Law 7/2022, of April 8, urges the administrations, specifically the municipalities, to prepare a census of waste and contaminated soils so that the local administrations have to prepare a census with all those public buildings that are affected by the presence of asbestos in their constructions.
A few months after the appearance of this law, at the request of the Provincial Directorate and at the request of the Ministry of the Environment, Management is requested to take charge of a report so that the public educational buildings containing this material are evaluated, a census is made and a timetable is made for their withdrawal.
“Obviously, at all times, this report has been known, both by the Autonomous City and by the Provincial Directorate of Education, and, in fact, it has never been hidden that he knew that there is asbestos in the schools of Melilla and specifically in the Public School of Children and Real Primary, on the contrary, it has been openly talked about that it existed and that it had to be removed and that it was a material that can not be in any public center and much less in a school,” he recalled.
Fernández Treviño has sent a message of tranquility to the students, their families and the teachers of this center, and that is that “we are clear in the Provincial Directorate and in the Ministry that this material has to be removed, but it is also that, by law, it must be done and there is a calendar established by Management for its withdrawal.”
He explained that the report points out that this withdrawal must be undertaken between the years 2026 and 2028 of all public centers, with the objective that, in the year 2032, Europe becomes a territory free of asbestos. “It has to be removed from each and every one of the buildings, from the public ones where there is an obligation on the part of the Administrations, but also from the private ones,” he explained.
“This Provincial Directorate and the Ministry of Education are aware that this has to be done and for us the best interests of the child and their well-being, the welfare of the children and their families prevail and, therefore, when I joined this Provincial Directorate, after work also by Juan Ángel Berbel, who had already done a previous job, we were clear that the withdrawal had to be done and that it had to be prioritized,” he said.
In her speech to the media, the head of the Provincial Directorate of Education in our city explained that, due to the size of the roof of the Royal, a major work must be carried out, “a work that must be tendered and awarded”, so she clarified that for this it may be a year and a half or two years.
However, for the peace of mind of the families, he reiterated that the requested reports on the amount of fibers in the air, “both by the Autonomous City of Melilla and from the Provincial Directorate, in both of them it is present that the amount of fibrocement in the air is unquantifiable, that is, it is well below what would mean a minimum risk for the people who share that space.”
In any case, he has insisted that this material is going to be removed from both the Royal Center and the rest of the city that have it either in drains, pipes, downcomers, rooftops… so a withdrawal schedule is going to be proceeded, which “has to be done by the Autonomous City, as a rule, and we accompany them in this process”.
In her speech, Elena Fernández Treviño said that one of the first things she did when she was Provincial Director was to meet with the President of AMPA Real and address this issue and the Ministry’s commitment to remove this material.
MEFPyD officials visit
During his public appearance, he announced that, in the next few days, there will be a visit by officials of the Ministry of Education - the Director General of Educational Management and Planning and the Assistant Director General - to our city to visit educational centers and hold meetings with the AMPAs and that they are scheduled, precisely, to visit the Royal College to know first-hand not only the asbestos roof, but also the deterioration of the infrastructure, given that this college is one of the oldest in our city and that it needs an investment to repair them.
“In the Ministry there is a commitment to improve all the infrastructures, in fact we have created a permanent working group and a person in the Provincial Directorate is going to be in charge of managing all the requests of the educational centers, of the directors and of the management teams,” he reported.
In addition, within these requests, it will be studied what is the responsibility of the Autonomous City, given that it is the administration responsible for the maintenance and conservation of primary schools or who does the new works.
Going into this issue, he pointed out that the MEFPyD intends to provide the Provincial Directorate and the educational centers themselves with financial capacity to undertake these works and to be more agile in carrying them out.
Finally, the Provincial Director of Education has announced that she will soon have a meeting with the Minister of Education, Miguel Ángel Fernández, not only to address this issue, but for all the collaborations and agreements maintained by both administrations and to follow up on “everything that, as administrations, competes with us in schools”.