The mayor of Arico, Sebastián Martín, includes the decision of the Regional Ministry of Education of not considering priority or urgent build the public school of Abades in what he defines as “plague” of measures contrary to the demands of the municipality adopted by administrations governed by the PSOE. He perceives in it a “political punishment”. In opposition to what the Canarian Executive proposes, the local government rejects that the educational needs are covered and affirms that the demand for the school comes from the population.
“Education does not know the real state of the schools in Arico”, which suffer from the deficiencies of “very old infrastructures”. Therefore, the educational community, which includes management teams and associations of mothers and fathers of students, “we have spent years claiming its improvement.” Martín explains that “when Education urgently asked us for the land for a new school, it only took a month for the technical and legal reports to be accepted”. The transfer of land is supported, in addition, by a unanimous plenary agreement, “including the Socialist Group.”
“When Education urgently asked us for the land for a new school, it took only a month for the technical and legal reports to be accepted”
After this “great effort”, the mayor exposes the existence of a “great malaise”. He recalls that Arico ceded 12,000 square meters, triple the number requested by Education, and states that with the positioning of this ministry, the supra-municipal administrations once again incur “a lack of respect for Arico.” At this point, he mentions decisions contrary to the interests and demands of the arich.
“We have seen it with the Environmental Complex, where the restoration of historical compensation is not addressed; with the proposal to install an incinerator in the place; with not respecting a judicial ruling on the wind farms, the delay of the General Planning Plan, the rejection of the project for the hotel complex in La Punta de Abona and the El Río dam and the unilateral proposal to install an offshore wind farm off the coast of Tajao and Las Maretas”, explains the councilman.
These decisions “represent a disappointment and sadness” for the municipality, adds the Councilor for Education, Pedro Andrés González, for whom there is “a grievance with the other municipalities of the Island. Arico has schools that are thirty years old, in which they do not there has been no work of closure or improvement”.
Some examples
To make it clear that the educational demands are not there, he refers to “bloody cases.” He cites the El Porís de Abona school, “a unitary school made up of two classrooms, one on top of the other, without a management office, without a place to receive parents, with the public square as a place for recreation.” For González, “let this be said, it seems to me that I do not recognize the true situation of the Areico schools.” In a similar situation, he places the La Degollada school, made up of “three independent buildings, more than three decades old, where they have studied up to five generations of neighbors. It is a mid-range center that lacks a roof and, therefore, suffers in the winter with the cold and the rains. In addition, physical education is carried out outdoors because the pavilion is not covered, although Education has been saying for years that it would cover it, but it has not been prioritized. The councilor states that “there has been no notable investment by the Ministry, what we have done from the City Council, to the extent that we can do with the powers we have, have been adaptation works.”
Pedro Andrés González considers that the construction of the Abades school is “a continuous demand on the Arico coast. There are children who spend 45 minutes to go to school and as many to return in the school transport service, almost two hours. A school is necessary for the coast of Arico. We have 12 kilometers of coastline, with five population centers. I do not share the decision of the Ministry, because once again the municipality of Arico is discriminated against”.
