The Great School Delivery Marathon begins in Bogotá, benefiting more than 12,000 children and adolescents
· Mayor Claudia López’s administration will reach out to neighborhoods to deliver eight formal schools to five locations in the city in record time. This Monday, the educational institution Guillermo León Valencia, located in the city of Antonio Narinho, was handed over, which now has a capacity for 1,400 students.
· “In Bogotá, education comes first, let there be no doubt about that. All schools in Bogotá – which are 400 with 738 places – will have adjustments to improve their facilities. Next year, we will complete the training and projects of 25 other schools”, assured the president.
· The eight educational infrastructure projects have an investment of over 293,000 million pesos and will benefit more than 12,000 children and youth in the capital.
· The original goal was to build 35 new or renovated schools. However, Mayor Claudia López’s administration will deliver, build or design about 70 new schools.
· “It’s a big effort we’re making as a city. We start this marathon with the words of the students, because they are our epicenter. If we don’t work with the family, it will be difficult for us to get the education we want,” said Education Minister Edna Bonilla.
· Representatives of parents and students thanked the district administration for this kind of work, which improves their conditions during education and creates a much more suitable environment for learning.
· The mayor urged parents and the educational community in general to be very alert to the possible increase in respiratory diseases among children in the next few days before the start of the rainy season, for which he recommended the use of face masks in classrooms.
Bogota, DC, October 3, 2022. The district administration began the task of providing eight public schools in the month of October that will have educational infrastructure with an investment of more than 293,000 million pesos, demonstrating the commitment of Mayor Claudia Lopez to public education in the city.
The first to be delivered today was the Guillermo León Valencia School in Antonio Narinho, where a partial restitution was completed with a capacity for 1,440 students with an investment of 16.548 million pesos.
The City Hall of Bogotá and the Secretary of Education of the District will arrive in the territories to provide new, expanded or restored schools to the different communities where girls, boys and young people will be able to develop all their skills, abilities and talents.
“All the schools in Bogotá, which are 400 with 738 places, will be adapted to improve their facilities. Next year we will complete studies and projects for another 25 schools. Education in Bogotá comes first, there is no doubt about it,” said Mayor López.
“It’s a big effort we’re making as a city. We start this marathon with the words of the students, because they are our epicenter. If we don’t work with the family, it will be difficult for us to get the education we want. We have to take care of the facilities. I urge them to take ownership of their school, for us to take care of it, to always love them hand in hand with the educational community,” assured Secretary Bonilla.
“It is a school for all, which, although it is in the city of Antonio Narinho, does not mean that it belongs to the whole of Bta. We have 3 days here. The school is made up of the students, the teachers,” said school principal David Ernesto Flores.
Mayor Juan Felipe, a young representative of the students, said: “I want to thank the City Hall and the Minister of Education for this job so well done that has benefited so many people. I am grateful for this commitment because it is a very effective task”.
Parents’ spokesman Mauricio Poveda also expressed his joy and gratitude: “Little by little we are bringing out well-educated citizens and we hope that this is not the first and only one, but that many more deliveries are coming.”
These institutions will benefit more than 12,000 students from cities such as Engativa, Antonio Narinho, Ciudad Bolivar, San Cristóbal and Bossa, areas of Bogotá that have historically had a greater demand for school places. Most schools are part of the seasonal enrollment offer which is currently running and will start attending from 2023.
The first to surrender was the Guillermo León Valencia School in the city of Antonio Narinho, an institution that had restitution work that completely improved the conditions and school spaces of 720 students in the city of Antonio Narinho.
In Ciudad Bolivar, the new Ángela Restrepo Moreno School, located in the Sierra Morena Curva property, will receive 1,040 children and youth from the south of the capital in one day.
In Bossa, one of the cities with the greatest shortage of places, the Ciudadela el Recreo Sonia Osorio Saint-Malo, Esmeralda Arboleda Cadavid and Laura Herrera de Varela schools will be inaugurated, allowing the opening of 7,280 places in the southwestern part of the city.
In the town of Engativá, the community will receive two educational institutions: the new Abel Rodríguez Céspedes School, which will serve 1,040 students, and the Laureano Gómez School, which has undergone restoration works. This institution, which started operating in 2022 and serves 1,545 students, was not officially opened.
Southeast of Bogotá will open the Gloria Valencia de Castaño school, which is located in the Santa Teresita campus and will receive 1,040 students, which will have different spaces such as a school garden, bicycle parking, multiple courts, a library, a playground and outdoor areas, between the other.
These works contribute to and are essential to Bogotá’s economic opening since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, as they have generated around 900 direct jobs in the last two and a half years.
The various facilities have preschool to middle school classrooms, toy libraries, music and dance workshops, science, physics and chemistry labs, libraries, recreation areas, playgrounds, school chairs and more.
At the end of his speech, the mayor appealed to parents and teachers to prevent the increase of respiratory diseases among minors before the arrival of the rainy season and the cold that will be felt in Bogotá in the coming weeks according to the forecasts.
“We are entering October and November when it will be the winter season, it will be cold, it will rain a lot and respiratory diseases will start to increase, we have to be alert and if the little one catches the flu, he better stay at home. After all, use the face mask again when we are very close to each other in the room,” the president said.
The largest investment in educational infrastructure in history
Never before has a regional government allocated such a high budget to build, expand, restore or improve Bogota’s official schools. In total, the investment will be 2.6 trillion – that is, millions of millions – of pesos, relying on debt quota resources.
Although the original goal was to build 35 new or renovated schools, the current administration, responding to the city’s needs, will end up providing or leaving about 70 new education centers under construction or design.
To date, twelve educational centers have been opened, two of which are for early childhood, in Bossa, Kennedy, Engativa, Ciudad Bolivar, Tunjuelito, Fontibon and La Candelaria.
In addition to the eight schools that will be inaugurated in the coming weeks and that are part of the “School Delivery Marathon”, 15 sites are under construction, five have recently been contracted and will start operating in the coming weeks, 14 are in progress of design, seven in architectural competitions and the rest in contractual processes.
