The counselor for Educational Development and Vocational Training, María del Carmen Castillo, has laid the foundation stone of the new Secondary Education Institute located in the area of Almerimar – Matagorda, in El Ejido (Almería), where the Junta will invest 8.6 million euros. This project will create 620 places for Compulsory Secondary Education and Baccalaureate, thus meeting the schooling needs of this expanding area of the Almerian municipality. Also present at the event were the mayor of El Ejido, Francisco Góngora, and the president of the Provincial Council, Javier A. García.
The counselor emphasized that this project once again demonstrates the Junta’s strong commitment to quality public education in the municipality of El Ejido, where a total of 35 projects have been completed since 2019, with an investment exceeding 8.7 million euros. Highlights include the expansion of institutes such as Murgi, Francisco Montoya, or the La Paz school, among others. Likewise, Castillo stated that laying the foundation stone is always a cause for joy as it marks the beginning of a long-awaited project that will feature modern facilities, sports spaces, and a bioclimatic system with adiabatic cooling to ensure students’ thermal comfort during the hottest months, as well as photovoltaic solar panels for electricity production.
This project has an estimated execution period of 24 months, with the expectation that, if everything progresses smoothly, the works will be completed in the first semester of 2027.
On the other hand, the counselor highlighted the investment of 79.5 million euros allocated to 358 educational infrastructure projects in the province of Almería since 2019. She also informed that there are currently 14 ongoing projects (under construction or in contracting) with a total budget of 29.3 million eurosIES Alhadra in Almería capital, or the new Las Salinas institute in Roquetas de Mar.
In addition, the mayor of El Ejido, Francisco Góngora, expressed his satisfaction in being able to lay the foundation stone of the new IES in Almerimar, an infrastructure that has been in high demand for years by the City Council and the residents to meet the needs of a nucleus that already has nearly 12,000 inhabitants and a young and continuously growing population.
He detailed that it will be built on a plot of 13,200 m2 provided by the City Council with a significant investment of 8.6 million euros, demonstrating the firm commitment of the City Council and the Government of Juanma Moreno to promote quality infrastructure and education, ensuring that no student is left without access to a nearby first-rate center, eliminating the need for them to travel 10 km each day to attend classes.
The President of the Provincial Council, Javier A. García, stated that the construction of educational centers symbolizes growth, well-being, and future for the entire province: «Education is the cornerstone of prosperity and the basis of the major objective shared by the Junta de Andalucía, the City Council of El Ejido, and the Provincial Council: to equalize opportunities for Almerians, regardless of where they live. Institutional collaboration for the benefit of all citizens, as evidenced in this event, is essential to make this possible.»
He also explained that Almería is no longer the eternal forgotten province of Andalusia. «As an example of this reality, we only need to look at the significant investment that the Junta is making in our land in educational infrastructure, with almost 80 million euros allocated since 2019, representing the largest increase in education investment in Almería’s history.»
New IES
The new center will be of type D4+B2, meaning it will have four Compulsory Secondary Education lines and two Baccalaureate lines, offering a total of 620 school places. The institute will be built on a 13,200 square meter plot located at the intersection of Avenida de la Sal and Calle Mar Azul, with a total of 4,974 square meters built, distributed in teaching area, administrative area, common services, and outdoor spaces.
The Compulsory Secondary Education teaching area will consist of 16 multipurpose classrooms with a capacity for 480 students, two Music, Dramatization, and Audiovisual classrooms, a Plastic and Audiovisual Education classroom, a workshop classroom, two split classrooms, and two support and pedagogical reinforcement classrooms.
For Baccalaureate, there will be four multipurpose classrooms with a capacity for 140 students, a Drawing classroom, a split classroom, another support and pedagogical reinforcement classroom; as well as three laboratories, which will be shared with Compulsory Secondary Education, and a Technology classroom.
In the common teaching area, there will be ten departments, a Special Education classroom with adapted toilet, library, gymnasium with changing rooms and toilets. In the administrative area, there will be offices for management, head of studies, and secretary, orientation room, office for parent and student associations, concierge and reprography, secretariat and archive, and room and toilets for the teaching staff. As common services, the center will have a cafeteria and warehouse, among others.
In the outdoor areas, the new IES in Almerimar will have a covered porch, two sports courts, play area, garden, parking area for staff vehicles, and landscaped area.
The construction of this new educational center is part of the Educational Infrastructure Plan of the Department of Educational Development and Vocational Training, implemented by the Andalusian Public Education Agency, and is co-financed by the European program Andalucía FEDER 2021-2027.
