The Ministers of Social Welfare, Equality, Youth, Children and Families and of Education, Vocational Training, Physical Activity and Sports of the Government of the Canary Islands, Candelaria Delgado and Poli Suárez, held this Thursday a meeting with the aim of addressing the best way to school migrant children who are arriving on the Canary Island coasts.
During the meeting, they exchanged reports on the schooling of unaccompanied migrant minors under the tutelage of the Executive during the 2023-2024 academic year and agreed on the need to achieve full schooling for them in the course that begins in a month.
The Minister of Education explained in detail the specific plans that his department has developed to achieve the integration of these minors in the classrooms, initiatives that place special emphasis on the need for these children to learn the language so that they can access the teachings that correspond to them according to their age.
According to data provided by the Ministry of Education, less than half of the minors welcomed, 2,188 migrant children and young people studied in Canary Island classrooms in the 2023-2024 academic year, most of whom (1,657) were under 16 years of age and, therefore, of compulsory school age.
To meet their needs, Poli Suárez recalled that, only until April, his department had offered this year 1,886 hours of language support (787 more than the previous year), with an investment of 4.7 million euros.
For her part, Candelaria Delgado insisted on the need to "have medium and long-term plans" for these children and requested information on the planned professionalization courses, taking into account that the rest of these minors (531) are in the age range between 16 and 18 years, and that their main interest is to receive vocational training that allows them to stay and work in European territory.
Both ministers agreed on the need to develop specific content adaptation actions aimed at these children who, in some cases, have never been schooled because they come from areas of the African continent where access to this essential service is not available.