Four robberies in the last twenty months. That is the mark achieved by the publicly managed “Genaro Berón de Astrada” school in Palermo. The last of these robberies was in February: that time, the thieves took some two hundred netbooks of the “Safe Space” of that building. Four months have passed since that last robbery and the computers They were not replaced by the Ministry of Education of the city of Buenos Aires.
The pedagogical consequences are concrete: “After all the thefts were over, a quarter of the machines that were originally in the school remained. The kids who used to be able to work with those computers several times a week Now they use them for an hour, once a week. All digital and audiovisual learning is worked on from theory but can hardly be put into practice in a concrete way,” explains Diego Martínez Madrid, father of two students from that institution.
The successive robberies at the Palermo school were not isolated events: during the first four months of this year, according to the cases that were publicly known, Almost 100 computers were stolen per week of publicly managed schools in the City.
There were even cases of robbery attempts that were frustrated not by the intervention of the security forces but because there were no longer any computers left to steal: this was the case of the “Honorable Congreso de la Nación” school, neighboring the Palermo Hippodrome. There, in nine months, there were five intrusions for criminal purposes, but in the last two there were no more machines because other thieves had taken them all.
“They replaced our tablets and computers a couple of weeks ago, on May 31 the school announced the replacement,” explains Gabriela, a member of the educational community at the “Pablo Picasso” kindergarten in Saavedra, which shares the property with the elementary school 15 of the City’s 10th school district. The theft had just started classes, at the end of February: regaining the resources with which it was planned to complete the school year took a quarter.
“But we didn’t get everything back. In addition to stealing primary school computers and tablets from the garden, which is what we recovered, They stole our sound equipment and we have already asked about it several times and there is no answer. They stare at us. At this point we assume that they are not going to replace that,” says Gabriela, mother of a “Picasso” girl. The cooperator ruled out the possibility of replacing that equipment with new ones using its own funds: “They also stole money from the cooperator when they entered.”
In that school, the focus of attention now that they have recovered the computers and tablets is once again on the building: due to leak problems there were power outages, which meant that, for example, the kindergarten teachers had to teach with a flashlight. and as close to a window as possible.
“Now they authorized an abbreviated tender to repair the leaks through which the water entered and ruined the wiring. In addition, they set up alternative wiring for us in case the central gets wet and the power goes out, not only for lighting, but also because the heating is through electric air conditioners,” describes Gabriela, and adds: “But we are still having problems. until the works are finished. Last week, when there was hail, it also hailed inside the school.”
“Very slowly they are putting together the so-called ‘Safe Space’. Before we only had an alarm that sounded to the director if a supposedly protected place was violated. Now they changed the door to that space and are installing bars. The equipment will be stored there, which they tell us will be replaced when the ‘Safe Space’ is finished. The excuse they give us for the lack of replacement is that the conditions have to be in place so that the machines are not stolen, but the contradictory thing is that the installation of that space is slow, and that impacts learning,” says Martínez Madrid. about the “Berón de Estrada” school.
According to sources from the Buenos Aires Ministry of Education to Infobae, from that portfolio “a Comprehensive Security Plan began to be implemented this year; in this frame Security was reinforced in more than 130 schools”. These same sources assured that Safe Spaces are already installed in 397 schools, “where alarms, motion sensors, anti-vandal cars and/or physical security were placed.”
In the case of the Berón de Estrada school, in Medrano and El Salvador, that physical security is the presence for a few months of a night watchman: “He managed to prevent a new robbery, because he heard some noises and found some boys nearby. point of committing a crime,” says Diego. In that same school, where the existing “Safe Space” was violated, the new one has not yet been completed.
Sources of Ministry of City Security they explained to Infobae that, a few months ago and at the request of the Education Ministry, they intervened in the installation of cameras, sensors and alarms that connect directly to the City Police monitoring center. “Education asked us to install this technology in 92 schools and in fifteen days all the installations were done. Now we will incorporate about twenty more schools. From Education they tell us in which institutions to do it,” indicate those same sources.
According to statistics maintained by the Security portfolio, In May, robberies and thefts from schools fell by 34%. In that same sense, from Education they assure: “Thefts in schools fell abruptly and in the last 45 days six attempts were frustrated, due to alerts to the Police or by monitored alarms.”
From Education, they explain that the replacement of computers “is done after the school files a police report and the Ministry of Education implements new security measures.” It is what the Saavedra garden and primary school community waited for three months and what the Palermo school is still waiting for.
From Education they assured Infobae that the replacement in that institution will be next Wednesday, more than four months after the last of four robberies. When computers are there, the time will come for boys and girls to be able to use them for more than an hour a week and to go from theory to practice.
