Casalarreina, 23 (EFE).- The Minister of Education, Pilar Alegría, has stressed the importance of educational investments in rural areas, so that its inhabitants have the same services and can decide where they want to live.
Alegría made these statements during her visit to the construction site of the new school in the Rioja town of Casalarreina, where she also participated in the end-of-school-year ceremony, which was also the “farewell” to the building that hosted the educational center for six decades and from September will be replaced by another in which some five million euros have been invested.
The minister was accompanied by the acting president of the Government of La Rioja, Concha Andreu, and the mayor of Casalarreina, Félix Caperos, who recalled how this center has been a demand from the municipality since 2007.
This new school will replace the current CEIP of the town starting next year, after some works that have lasted since July 2021; The new school is divided into two volumes, with which the classrooms will be located in one building and the gymnasium and entrances in another; It will have a dining room for 80 diners, although it can be expanded and it also has spaces for changing rooms, cleaning and other facilities.
After visiting the works of the future school, the Minister of Education has stressed that this type of act “means something important for all of us who, in one way or another, are involved in the management of education.”
He recalled that this municipality had been asking for a new school since 2007 “and today what was a promise at the time has finally become a reality” to “give the possibility that some 88 students and 22 teachers, from next year They can come here to study, to train and also to do it in some magnificent facilities”.
Alegría stressed “what it means for our municipalities, especially those in rural Spain, such as Casalarreina, to set up a school like this, because in the end many of the families when choosing where to live, where to develop their project of life, they need us to provide them with quality services and I would dare to say that one of the most basic and most fundamental is education”.
He also recalled that in 2023 La Rioja will receive around 37 million euros “to continue providing better education” and “guarantee such basic issues as that approximately 7,000 La Rioja residents can enjoy a scholarship, or launch more than 120 infant education places”.
COMMITMENT TO THE RURAL SCHOOL
The president of the La Rioja Executive, Concha Andreu, has stressed that the project of this school has an “emblematic” character with respect to the support that its Executive has given this legislature to public schools in rural areas.
“The public school is always important for the integral development of minors, but in rural areas it is also important to generate community and to guarantee equal opportunities” with which it is “a key service when fixing population to the territory ”, he stated.
For this reason, “this regional government has been fully committed to rural schools, a commitment that we have turned into more investment and technical and personal resources”, concluded the acting president of the La Rioja government.