The 36 pupils of the Busquístar junior school cannot exactly be considered spoilt, as they have had to put up with the wintery temperatures of the Alpujarra without heating in their classroom. The village, by the way, stands at 1,100 metres above sea level!
The Mayoress Elisabet Lizana, points out that the 50-year-old school is really quite obsolete.
“The classrooms don’t have heating and there is no hot water,” she complained explaining that the school only has a couple of mobile heaters, whose inadequate heat soon dissipates through the ill-fitting windows and doors. The cold is such during autumn and winter that the teachers and pupils come to classes wearing several layers of clothing.
It’s not much better on the outside, as the recreation area is just earth, which during the winter becomes a mud bath, and during the summer turns into a dust bowl.
The school has no sports ground, library or computer room. The toilets, which are in a separate building, have a leak in the roof, right next to the light fixture.
There’s not doubt about it; the village needs a new school, or a miracle, or probably both. The fact is that the school was included in the 2007 Plan Mejora, but nothing has been heard since.