More than 650 secondary school students at the Nuestra Señora del Rosario educational institution in Piura, Peru, are continuing to attend classes in a building that has been declared at risk of collapse since 2023, according to the school community.
Parents and teachers fear that heavy rains brought by the El Niño weather phenomenon could worsen the damage and cause the walls to give way, according to the school's director, Gerardo Rufino.
Piura sits on Peru's northern coast, a region regularly affected by intense seasonal rainfall linked to El Niño, a recurring climate pattern that has caused flooding and landslides across the area in the past.
Tilted walls held up with wooden posts
Rufino said the school's perimeter wall is dangerously tilted and in some sections has had to be propped up with wooden posts. To prevent accidents involving passers-by, the stretch of the perimeter facing the street has been temporarily fenced off with barbed wire.
The main building, which houses fourteen classrooms used by first, second and third-year secondary students, has multiple cracks running through its walls and columns, Rufino said. He added that windows in the building have started to come out of alignment, which he said was a sign that the structure is gradually sinking.
Waiting on a technical file
Rufino said the Local Education Management Unit, known as the UGEL, in Piura and the municipality of Veintiséis de Octubre are both aware of the building's condition. He said a technical profile of the problem has already been drawn up and that officials are now waiting for the municipality to complete the full technical file needed before repair work can begin. Rufino said the municipality has told the school the file has not yet been finished because of a lack of budget.
Call to join reconstruction plans
Rufino urged local and national authorities to speed up a complete renovation of the school, a project valued at more than 25 million soles. He asked for the school to be included in government plans for the reconstruction of educational centers in the region, a measure President Keiko Fujimori repeatedly promised during her election campaign.
