As Mexico prepares to reopen schoolsfor the first time since the start of the pandemic, many are worried about the conditions their children’s schools are in. Last week, officials reported on the number of schools that were vandalized during the pandemic.
About 10,000 schools were broken into and vandalized in Mexico during the pandemic, according to data shared Friday by the head of Mexico’s education department Delfina Gómez Álvarez.
"We had a total of almost 10,000 schools," she said during a press conference.
That’s about 4% of schools around the country. And Gómez says about half of those have already received attention.
But many parents and advocates across Mexico have expressed concerns about the state of classrooms as schools are set to start reopening at the end of the month. In addition to vandalism, many say schools were not well maintained during the last 18 months of the pandemic.
And as cases have risen to record levels in Mexico, it’s unclear how officials will outfit schools with needed updates to help to prevent the spread of the virus by the time students return.
