The years go by and thousands of students continue to receive classes in ancient spaces that are very noticeable over time, some even appear to be falling apart.
The structural state of some educational establishments in Pereira is unfortunate and although arrangements are made to avoid the risk to children, adolescents and staff of educational institutions, there are some schools that require thorough improvement or total reconstruction.
This is the case of the Risaralda Gymnasium school, which a few years ago had to be closed due to the imminent risk of collapse. The students had to be relocated to other campuses due to the imminent danger they were in.
With the purpose of putting this campus back into operation, the mayor of Pereira, Carlos Maya López, asked the Minister of Education, Alejandro Gaviria, for resources to rebuild the facilities of the Risaralda Gymnasium. The request amounts to $9,308 million to have a building with a basement and 5 floors. If this campus can be rebuilt, this would benefit 480 students from one of the most populated areas of the city, the Río Otún commune.
Another of the public schools with the most deficiencies in its infrastructure is the Pablo Emilio Cardona educational institution, whose headquarters are located in Carrera Octava in the vicinity of the Turin roundabout and the Palace of Justice. The local president also asked the Minister for resources for this campus.
For this project, $11,347 million were requested to benefit 960 students. This infrastructure would have 1 basement and 3 floors.
from school to park
One of the schools that was also evacuated in 2019 was the La Victoria headquarters of the Rafael Uribe Uribe educational institution. The cause for the relocation of the students was the same as the previous schools, the poor state of the infrastructure.
Taking into account that the campus must be demolished, different alternatives were studied at the time, for example, the possibility of establishing the municipal archive there was analyzed, however the most viable option, according to the mayor of the city, is to build a park.
New school
A few weeks after being elected President of the Republic, Gustavo Petro invited mayors from all over the country to arrange lots for the construction of educational infrastructure. In the case of Pereira, the local president disposed of land in Cerritos for the construction of a mega-school. The construction of this was another of the requests that was made to the Minister of Education. The construction of this campus would be in the order of $11.350 million, to benefit 860 students.
