The Education Ministry has been installing prefabricated classrooms at schools without the planning permission they require, parliament’s Audit Committee heard on Thursday, as MPs, parents and teachers raised concerns over overcrowding and safety in schools.
A representative of the Department of Town Planning and Housing told the committee that the ministry does not apply for permits, adding that if it did, its applications would be examined and approved within a reasonable time. The need for planning permission was also raised by the Audit Office in its recent report and by its representative at the session.
The committee was examining recent Audit Office reports on prefabricated classrooms and on health and safety in schools. There are 469 prefabricated classrooms in use, 400 in primary and 69 in secondary education, according to the Audit Office.
MPs, parents’ representatives and teachers told the committee of schools where several classes on an upper floor share a single staircase, raising questions over how so many children would be able to get out in an emergency. In some schools, prefabricated classrooms that have become permanent have also been divided, leaving the front desk about a metre from the board.
Some schools, mainly kindergartens, have been crowded with prefabricated classrooms to make room for younger children after the compulsory school starting age was lowered, leaving too little playground space, they said.
Safety certificates
Of 492 schools that asked the Electrical and Mechanical Services (EMS) to inspect their installations, 444 received a certificate, 42 are awaiting re-inspection and six did not meet the standards and were refused one, the Audit Office found.
Of 546 schools that requested a fire safety inspection, 113 hold a certificate, while the Fire Service made specific observations for 428.
Asked whether schools face a real risk from their installations, an EMS representative said they did not.
Apostolos Skouroupatis, vice-president of primary teachers’ union POED, raised safety concerns, citing a school that had problems with its equipment last year. He also pointed to conditions in special schools, saying classrooms were being used for other purposes and there was so little space that lessons and specialist support were being held under staircases.
Kyriakos Matthaiou, vice-president of secondary teachers’ union OELMEK, said prefabricated classrooms had become permanent fixtures and that trees had even been cut down at one school to make room for them, as there was no other space. “The situation is suffocating, we cannot function,” he said.
Need for new schools
Education ministry officials, including the directors of primary and secondary education and a representative of its Technical Services, said schools had accommodation needs and that prefabricated classrooms helped meet them temporarily.
The problem is greatest in kindergartens and is expected to worsen in the coming years as the starting age is lowered, the committee heard. A Technical Services official said it was very difficult to expand existing kindergartens, so new ones would have to be built.
MPs said the ministry had no comprehensive plan for where, in which areas and when new schools would be built, and asked for the information to be submitted to them immediately if it exists.
