The students of the Pancho Lasso Art School in Arrecife are planning to go on strike after a week without electricity in several classrooms as a result of "power outages" that prevent the normal functioning of classes, as they stated in an assembly they held this Monday.
"It goes up, it goes down, our computers turn off, and we are tired," said a student at the assembly held by the students to begin planning the strike, where they explain that the problem started after installing "a smart meter" in the center.
"We are obsolete first of all in terms of technology, because the computers have already seen it, and we can't even work with those computers anymore," said the student, who blames the Department of Education for the situation and expresses her fear that the students will lose the term of classes due to the power outages.
For now, waiting to hold a meeting this Tuesday with the director of the Pancho Lasso Art School to learn "first-hand information" before going on strike, the students have decided to spread the video of the assembly so that it goes "viral" and that "they see that it is an entire center that is having this problem." "And if we go on strike here outside the center and they don't pay attention to us, we would go en masse to the Department," it was proposed at the assembly.
"We have contracted electricity for what are the services of an apartment"
For his part, the director of the Pancho Lasso Art School, Manuel Perdomo, explained to La Voz that the problems began on October 1st as a result of Endesa installing a smart meter, an installation that he claims the company "did not notify the center about." In fact, he pointed out that they did not manage to "decipher" the problem until the 3rd, "after an electrical company checked the installation."
"And what the meter does is trip the lever, the power goes out, because the consumption is greater than the contracted power," explained Manuel Perdomo, who stated that the power that the center has contracted is "the same" that it had "when the center opened in 71" with "the reality so distant between the services that the center had in the 70s and those it has at the moment." "We have contracted electricity for what are the services of an apartment, that is, very little power," he added.
A situation that the management believes is being "magnified"
According to the director of the Pancho Lasso Art School, the center already contacted the Department of Education, from where they were told that they were "going to request an extension" from the electricity company to deactivate the new meter while arrangements are made to increase the power. However, although he claims that on Thursday they told him that "it would be a matter of 48 hours," the problems continued this Monday. "It has fallen a lot of times," he assured.
However, although the director of the Pancho Lasso Art School recognizes that "it is a huge problem for the normality" of the center given that some classes are being taught "with deficiencies" because "some computer resources are missing" and "there is effectively no electricity in some classrooms," he considers that the situation is being "magnified" and that "a class should not have been given in the street" as has been done.
"Because the center mostly does have electrical energy," specified Manuel Perdomo, who explained that he has been informed that an engineer from the Department of Education will visit Pancho Lasso on Wednesday and that he hopes that the power outages will be resolved "in a short time."
