SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, September 25 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Ministry of Education of the Government of the Canary Islands informs this Monday that this Tuesday the deadline to apply for a place begins for those students aged 2 to 3 years who, having been enrolled in the first cycle of early childhood education in public schools of the Government of the Canary Islands, has not been able to start his schooling as his classrooms are not finished.
Until the works in these classrooms are completed, the students will be referred to municipal public schools and private centers, with the Ministry of Education assuming their cost, as announced by its head, Poli Suárez, who, on his own initiative, has presided This Monday an information meeting between technicians from the Provisional Administrative Unit (UAP), in charge of supervising the work, and spokespersons on educational matters from the different groups of the Parliament of the Canary Islands.
The Ministry highlights in a note that the incorporation of these boys and girls into the educational system “was not properly planned” by the previous Executive, which offered 1,196 new places in 65 centers for the 2023/2024 academic year (finally, those enrolled amounted only to 1,027) without completing the works or acquiring the necessary supplies for its start-up.
“Another example of this poor planning,” he points out, is found in the fact that his resolution of April 4, 2023, which established the school calendar and issued instructions for the organization and development of the start and end activities, completion of the 2023/2024 academic year for non-university education centers in the Autonomous Community of the Canary Islands, “will not even set the exact date on which these students should join the classrooms.”
Instead, it was simply indicated that “in the educational centers dependent on the Ministry that implement the first cycle of Early Childhood Education in the 2023/2024 academic year, the start date of the actual teaching activities will be subject to the completion of the works and “the provision of the equipment necessary for the opening and putting into operation of said classrooms, after supervision by the Education Inspection and communication to the corresponding Territorial Directorate, this exceptional circumstance will mean that the start date may be different in each of these centers.” .
However, the Ministry highlights that “the outgoing Executive and certain groups have wanted to convey to public opinion that these new places were not ready on September 11 because of the current Government, when due to the technical and administrative reasons presented this has not been the case. “.
Likewise, they have made other “unfounded accusations,” he comments, such as that the Government “intends to privatize public education by referring students to other centers, when the only thing it has sought is a solution for the families affected by poor management and zero planning by Torres and his Education Minister, Manuela Armas”.
Faced with this situation, the department, which has designed “in record time” a protocol so that these families can send their sons and daughters to school in the places available in other authorized centers on the islands, both public (municipal nursery schools) and private, waiting for the works to be completed “in the non-existent classrooms in which Torres and Armas allowed their children to be enrolled.”
The measure, therefore, “has only a temporary and extraordinary nature”, as Suárez reiterated this Monday to the spokespersons with whom he met at the Gran Canaria headquarters of the Ministry: Marcos Francisco Hernández (PSOE), Miguel Yonathan Martín (CC), Sonsoles Martín (PP), Carmen Hernández (Nueva Canarias), Melodie Mendoza (ASG) and Marta Gómez (VOX).
EXTRAORDINARY PROCEDURE
From the Ministry, whose current managers regret the inconvenience caused by their predecessors to the families, an SMS has been sent with a link to the corporate website www.gobiernodecanarias.org/educacion/web/infantilwhere the protocol was published this Monday.
The deadline to apply for a place starts this Tuesday and will remain open until Thursday.
Families will be able to choose between the places available in the centers on the published list, and must submit a single application to the center they wish to apply for first.
Subsequently, the Ministry will inform the centers that, starting October 2, they will contact the families to explain the necessary procedures to make the registration effective.
The boys and girls will join their classes starting the next day, October 3.
According to the agreement signed with the Canarian Federation of Municipalities (FECAM) and the network of private nursery schools in the Canary Islands, in general, families will not have to pay while this situation lasts since the expenses at the chosen center, valued at 200 euros per month, will be borne by the Ministry itself, except for a single payment of 30 or 60 euros for the purchase of school supplies by private centers – the amount will depend on the length of time the schooling lasts: first quarter or the entire the course– the increases that municipal public schools may impose above those 200 euros and the dining room expenses, which will be voluntary.
In this sense, the hours of stay in private centers will be from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., while in municipal schools, it will be as established in each case.
LUNCH SERVICE
However, these hours may be extended by contracting the dining room service (until 2:30 p.m., in the case of private ones, and until the established time, in public ones that offer the service).
When the works are finished or the classroom supplies arrive in the Canary Islands Government centres, the students will occupy their original places, for which the Ministry will try to expedite the procedures as much as possible.
Likewise, it will continue to look for alternatives for those who, due to the lack of places in municipal or private nursery schools in their area, continue to need a solution.
