Falling part of the ceiling school in Volos is the latest in a series of news demonstrating problems in the control and maintenance of schools buildings throughout Greece.

Falling plaster, damp ceilings, damaged roofs and uncomfortable yards are just some of the stories of the daily madness faced by the teaching staff, guardian parents and students. And if some of them seem comically tragic, no one laughs when luck is not on our side and accidents happen, many are rather accidents.

The case of the death of an 11-year-old elementary school student in Serra after an explosion in a boiler room, as well as a strong earthquake in Turkey, mobilized Attica Parents Federationwho joined the forces of his associations and illuminated with photographs and texts the bad situation that prevails in the capital’s schools.

The image is definitely representative of all Greeceas the President of the Supreme Parent-Student Federation stated in “K”, Stella Valavani. “There are many problems. Every day, all parents have anxiety,” he notes.

Insufficient funds

The schools were officially taken over by the municipalities in 2010. “Municipalities have taken over the management of an aging school workforce. Now that we are recording all the buildings, it seems that 50% of them were built before 1985.“, notes about Dimitris Papastergiou, President of the Central Union of Greek Municipalities and Mayor of Trikala. “Many schools don’t even have building permits.. So they were given to us by previous operators. We have a serious problem even finding studies on how these schools were set up,” he adds.

Municipal funds are insufficient for serious interventions, and the recession has been exacerbated by the energy crisis.

Having school buildings under his own responsibility, municipalities must carry out inspections with the help of technical services, as well as bear the cost of repairswhich, if small, can be carried out by the municipalities themselves, and if they are large, are often carried out under contract with private individuals. For this purpose, as well as to cover the operating costs of schools, municipalities allocate certain funds. As the KEDE president says, this money is completely insufficient for serious interventions, and the recession has been exacerbated by the energy crisis.

“These funds sufficient for operating costs and simple maintenance. Especially in 2022, when oil and gas prices reach levels known to us, in schools in Northern Greece, it was recorded that this money was not enough even for government spendingalthough they were also increased compared to other years,” notes Mr. Papastergiou, adding that it is only through the NSRF or public or private sector contracts that take time that serious work is done on school buildings.many of which have problems with roofs and yards.

The President of the Supreme Parents Federation of Greece admits that one of the main problems in the security of school buildings is chronic underfunding, pointing out, however, that in every attack or complaint of the Federation for this reason, the answer is a guilt game between the bodies. “We have become a club between the city authorities, the region and the ministries education and home affairs. Every time one person shifts responsibility to another,” notes Ms. Valavani and is perplexed: “What will happen in the event of an earthquake?”.

This question has been asked by thousands of parents who have seen houses in Turkey crumble as a result of devastating earthquakes in the neighboring country.

Building profile

According to his bulletin Seismic Planning and Protection Organization (OASP), 61% of school buildings were built before the 1985 anti-seismic regulations, 41% according to the regulations in force from 1985 to 2000, and only 6% in accordance with the Greek anti-seismic regulations in force since 2001 . . For 2% of school buildings, the date of construction remains unknown.

“The need to control school buildings is imperative. Many of them were built with simple anti-seismic rules that were less stringent than the current ones. In addition, older buildings have undergone aging materials, so we do not know to what extent their behavior will match the specifications they were built to. It is also possible that interventions were made, such as the demolition of walls that should not have been, to expand some rooms or work was carried out on the load-bearing body, which could affect the stability of the buildings,” said the professor. seismology of the Aristotle University tells “K” of the University of Thessaloniki, Manolis Skordilis.

Checks are slow

Since 2001, 56% of school buildings have been inspected.

Despite the need for inspections, since 2001, when the “Primary Seismic Survey of Public and Public Buildings” began, until today, approximately half of the school buildings, namely 56% of them, have been inspected, as indicated in the KEDE document. . Although this percentage is insufficient, it is clearly an improvement over the 20% of the total 80,000 public and non-profit buildings that have been inspected in the country.

The initial audit, now 22 years old, was optional until recently, and according to the OASP, that was one of the main reasons it moved forward with slow procedures. According to the organization, other reasons were the lack of specialized scientific personnel to cover all buildings, ie. there are few engineers in competent services with a large workload and objects, as well as an unclear delimitation of responsibilities – services, interweaving of duties, because and the lack of information about the usefulness of the program.

In conversation with “K”, OASP President and EKPA Professor, Efthymis Lekkasreports that so far, 30% of the reports sent by engineers to the OASP for the initial inspection of buildings have been returned because they did not meet all of the established criteria.

An important tool for pre-seismic control by municipalities in charge of schools has been Program “Antonis Tritsis”, which funded a pre-season audit of local governments. “This was done for the first time, and several municipalities, not all, took advantage of this opportunity,” says Dimitris Papastergiou. The search in Diavgei confirms the words of the mayor, as it seems that the invitation was an instrument of control over buildings, including several schools.

Pre-seismic survey became mandatory

It is hoped that the new earthquake program, which involves the relevant ministries, OASP, TEE and KEDE, will change the way inspections are carried out in accordance with a law passed in March.

According to Mr. Lekkas, the law makes preliminary seismic tests mandatory, and in accordance with the decision of the ministry, which will be issued in the next period, it will be seen how many years it will have to be repeated. The President of the OASP indicates to K that the primary and secondary inspections of the buildings will be carried out by OASP-trained engineers from the Hellenic Chamber of Tech, and all results will be included in an electronic platform that is being completed at this time. Until now, according to Mr. Lekkas, forms were written by hand, and now everything will be done electronically, and the primary control form itself will be improved.

“On Pacha, a ministerial decision will come out that will settle the details,” Mr. Lekkas emphasizes, saying he is optimistic that checks can begin from the summer.

The next day

Do we have the means to deal with problems that will arise as a result of the audits?

The issue of the next day of inspections is already being raised by experts and representatives of self-government bodies.

OUR Kyriasis PitilakisEmeritus Professor of Technical Seismology and Seismic Stability and Director of the AUTH Seismic Stability Laboratory, attaches great importance to both prioritization of controls and later building interventionsas well as in your area financing repairs that will be required and address important and complex issues such as Which schools will students be transferred to? while the work is going on in every school. “These are very serious questions. I’m not talking about sweeping the problem under the carpet, but when you decide to conduct preliminary seismic tests, you must decide that you have everything you need to solve the next two or three problems that arise.”

To help the government categorize schools according to their vulnerability and prioritize follow-up procedures, Mr. Pitilakis has created an innovative platform in his lab called School of Risk. “Not all buildings are vulnerable, it is a small percentage of 5% to 10% that can be classified as red, since the vulnerability is calibrated in 4-5 categories for each seismic scenario. The state will be rated with specific internationally recognized criteria to know which buildings are most vulnerable.”

The School of Risk platform is easy to use, since initially the results of primary control are recorded electronically. The innovation is that these results are combined with a range of data such as type of construction, geometric characteristics, year and building material – reinforced concrete or brickwork, as well as elements such as geographical location and soil conditions, carrying out a kind of secondary control. “For the various seismic scenarios that we can and do calculate, we assess the seismic risk, what the seismic loads will be, and then separately assess the vulnerability of each school,” he notes, adding that the platform can be easily extended to the national level.