About thirty social groups and almost a thousand people have signed a manifesto that accuses the Canary Islands Government's Department of Education, led by Poli Suárez (Partido Popular), of "opening the door to ideological censorship in public education" with the instructions it has sent to schools.
They refer, specifically, to point 3.4 of those instructions, which states that "the organization of conferences, talks, meetings or events that may be carried out by individuals, groups, organizations or collectives characterized by a certain ideological option that is not neutral and does not respect the fundamental rights and public freedoms recognized in our Constitution may not be authorized in school spaces and facilities."
Among the signatories of the manifesto critical of these instructions are the 8M Feminist Platform Tenerife, the Forum Against Gender Violence of Tenerife, the Feminist Collective Women in the Encounter, the Domitila Hernández Association, the Mercedes Machado Feminist Association, the Canary Islands Student Association (ACE), the Canary Islands Education Workers' Union (STEC) and the Canary Islands Foundation for Critical Thinking La Colectiva.
The Tamaimos Canary Islands Foundation and several entities from the LGBTI collective such as Diversas, Aperttura, Libertrans, Equidades, Caminar Intersex, Iris and the LGTBI+ State Federation also subscribe to it.
In their opinion, these instructions from the Department to public schools in the Canary Islands are given with "imprecision in their wording" which means they can be used "as the perfect excuse for the establishment of clear ideological censorship in the form of a disguised parental pin that would prevent schools funded by public money from including specific training related to the defense of the rights of vulnerable people and groups among their complementary activities, on the grounds that it does not fall within ideological neutrality".
The signatories of this manifesto believe it is "essential that the training content of the various subjects be reinforced with complementary activities that promote the transmission of values linked to equality, diversity and human rights, aspects that can be clearly pursued or disavowed thanks to this imprecise instruction".
For this reason, they demand from the Ministry of Education of the Government of the Canary Islands "an express clarification in order to point out that all complementary activities linked to the fundamental right to equality and non-discrimination for any personal or social condition or circumstance, thus excluding them from those that constitute a breach of ideological neutrality, may not be subject to prior censorship in application of this clause".
In their opinion, "education in the Canary Islands cannot be subject to the possibility of censorship for ideological reasons derived from ambiguous instructions issued by the Ministry of Education".
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