There’s a little coastal village called Casarones where the school-bus no longer reaches: now the Mayor of Castell de Ferro drives stranded school children to school.

The children from the hamlet have traditionally gone to the junior school in Castell de Ferro, which lies six kilometres away – until the education cuts, the school bus picked them up and ferried them to Castell.

The trouble is, according to the Junta, they should be going to school in La Mamola, which is only three kilometres from Casarones.

The Andalusian Education Board guarantees free primary and secondary education to all, including school transport to those that require it. But what it does not guarantee is transport to the school you prefer your child to attend, naturally. Up until now, before the squeeze the Castell school-bus route unofficially included Casarones, but now everything has gone under the magnifying glass in search of pennies to be saved.

Kids from Casarones and Rubite have long attended school in Castell – the logic being that bigger towns have better educational facilities – rather than La Mamola. It has been going on for so long that the upheaval of changing schools would disrupt the educational and social (class mates) stability, so parents strongly oppose it. And this is where the Mayor, Arsenio Vázquez steps in…

Since this has happened, the Mayor of Castell has stepped in and has authorized a car owned by the Town Hall to take the kids from Casarones to class each day. Municipal workers take turns driving, the Mayor included.

The problem is that neither the Mayor or the staff are authorized to act as drivers of school transport, nor is the car. Any parent can drive his child to school, and with the consent of other parents, take other children, too, but that is quite another matter. The parents, though grateful, are not happy with this make-do.

In the middle of the tussle is the private bus company that handles the school transport. “The company owner alleges that if he picks up the children from Casarones, he’ll need a bigger bus and the Junta won’t pay any more than it already is,” explains the Mayor, adding, “yet Rubite is already along his route.”

But the real problem is that during the previous school year there was no service for Casarones and the parents had organized themselves into taking turns. When this year came around and the bus was made available, everybody was happy, but now four months into the school year, the sudden change has thrown everybody off keel. What is hoped is that the school bus continues to do what it has been doing so far to the end of the school year, at least and then next year, the parents will go back to taking turns.

(News: Castell de Ferro, Costa Tropical, Granada Andalucia)