Several Official Language Schools in Canarias (EOIs) in Tenerife and Gran Canaria denounce that the Canarian Ministry of Education has excluded them from the Canarian Educational Network-Innovas. These centres had been able to participate in this project until this past school year, but the reorganization of the Ministry’s directorates now leaves them out of the initiative.
Specifically, the Canarian Network of Educational Centres for Innovation and Quality of Sustainable Learning is aimed at non-university public-funded educational centres in the Canary Islands that provide teaching in Early Childhood Education, Primary Education and Secondary Education, with the aim of promoting improvements in learning processes through innovative and creative proposals in organisational, pedagogical, professional, and participatory areas.
This initiative falls under the Directorate General of Teaching Organisation, Inclusion, and Innovation, which no longer oversees language schools or those offering Vocational Training (VT) due to the Ministry’s restructuring. The director of the Official School of Languages (EOI) in Güímar, José Antonio Díaz, explains that, in the case of this specific centre in the south of Tenerife, they had been able to participate in the initiative until this year.
Thanks to the Canarian-Innovas Network, they were able to launch a radio station at the centre and have promoted the publication of a magazine. Within the Canary Heritage axis, they have also been able to enhance the learning of their students, as well as that of art, through which they have organised exhibitions that have allowed them to address different aspects of teaching. Given the good results obtained, the centre wanted to participate again in the Ministry of Education’s initiative but has been met with refusal as the Directorate General of Teaching Organisation maintains that these centres do not fall under its management and are therefore excluded from the call.
Vocational Training and Adult Education spaces do maintain this initiative, as an exception
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Language Schools denounce, not only this exclusion, but also the discrimination they suffer in relation to the Integrated Vocational Training Centres (IVTCs) and Adult Education Centres (AECs), which are eligible for the Canarian-Innovas Network, even though they do not provide teaching in Early Childhood Education, Primary Education, and Secondary Education either.
In this regard, sources from the Government of Canarias’ Ministry of Education, point out that the Directorate General of Teaching Organisation, Inclusion, and Innovation does not have the authority to act on Special Regime Education, such as that provided in Official Language Schools. These teachings are predominantly disciplinary in nature, removed from the holistic training concept pursued by General Regime Education and that the Innovas Network delves into, which has found high beneficiaries in Secondary Education Institutes (SEIs). It turns out that many of these institutes offer Vocational Training programmes, so these students also take part in the initiative. As a consequence, and to prevent an unfair comparison between some VT students and others, the Ministry of Education has decided to make an exception for the IVTCs, so they too can participate in the Network’s call.
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On the other hand, AECs do fall under the Directorate General of Teaching Organisation, so they can opt for this call without any problem. The Ministry of Education is now considering the possibility that the Directorate General of Vocational Training and Special Regime Education, which oversees the EOIs, initiates a similar project to the Canarian-Innovas Network for the centres that are left out of the current initiative.
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