The Ministry of Education, Universities, Culture and Sports understands that “the construction of a new school in Arico is not urgent.” The fundamental reason argued by the Government of the Canary Islands is that “the school population is taken care of”, that is to say, that “The schooling needs in the area are covered”. From the regional Executive it is stressed that “the construction of this educational center is not urgent.”
This pronouncement comes a year after the plenary session of the Arico City Council unanimously agreed to cede the land necessary to build a school in Abades. Measure that responded to the urgent request made by the Ministry of Education to the Municipal Corporation. A request for land that Education justifies by ensuring that “it is expected to be in the medium and long term”, because it is one of the parameters that is taken into account when planning the actions that are needed and/or demanded.
In fact, in the Ministry of Education of the Canary Islands there is no evidence that the construction of the Abades school is a request from the population, according to this department of the regional Executive. In any case, he points out: “It is not that it has been ruled out, but that it is not an urgent matter. There is no need to serve this population in the short term; yes, it will have to be done in the future, but that is why it is not contemplated to build that school in these Budgets of the Autonomous Community ».
On January 27 of last year, the Plenary of Arico approved the transfer of 12,000 square meters of municipal land to the Ministry of Education to build a public school in the town of Abades. This is triple the area collected by the regional Executive to meet this demand from the ariquero municipality. This transfer of land “is the first big step to transform the school situation of the municipality, promoting the largest investment in education in decades,” according to the mayor, Sebastián Martín.
The PSOE confirmed it
That day, the socialist spokesperson in the ariquero Consistory, Olivia Delgado, reported that the general director of Centers, Infrastructures and Educational Promotion, María Candelaria González, confirmed the request for land for a new school, a measure “which is vital for the development of Arico”, said the also senator for Tenerife.
The space provided by the Arico City Council to build the new school is located in the Caleta María Luisa Urbanization, in the coastal town of Abades. It is the only plot of public ownership that meets all the requested characteristics and requirements set by the Ministry of Education, the municipal government pointed out a year ago. Among these issues, it was required to have road access, availability of water supply, wastewater evacuation, electricity supply to carry out the work, connection points for low-voltage electricity supply and telephony, and a minimum of 4,000 square meters.
