The Minister of Education of the Government of the Canary Islands, Poli Suárez, will announce "in the coming days" what decision his department will take in relation to the use of mobile phones in classrooms after the State School Council has advised this Thursday to ban their use throughout the school day.
Suárez has acknowledged, in statements to the media this Thursday, that this is a "problem known to all" and that he hopes to respond to the educational community of the archipelago "in the coming days" after analyzing what was raised by the State School Council and the report issued by the School Council of the Canary Islands at the request of the Executive itself a few weeks ago.
Regarding the recommendations of the State School Council regarding the prohibition of mobile phones throughout the school day in Secondary education except when used for academic purposes, and the "non-necessity" of their use in Infant and Primary education, Poli Suárez has said that they consider it a "good measure".
"We are paying attention to the School Council of the Canary Islands through the report it has issued, in which they advised not to prohibit its use, but to restrict it, and also assessing it with the technicians of the Ministry of Education because we also want to have more opinions, and from there we will make a decision in the coming days," explained the Minister.
Reinforcement program in mathematics and reading comprehension
Regarding the reinforcement program in mathematics and reading comprehension announced by the Government of Spain, the Canarian Minister celebrated that at the meeting of the State School Council, more details were known about what it will consist of, such as that it will be extended to students in Baccalaureate and basic FP and that it will include both public and subsidized schools.
"It is true that the announcement made by the Government of Pedro Sánchez was those 500 million euros, but from there we do not know how they will be distributed," said Suárez, who wonders "what will be the amount of money" that reaches the islands.
Beyond that, he assured that the Ministry has already launched a plan with seven axes to "correct" the negative data that the PISA report left for the Canary Islands, which placed the region at the "bottom" of the country.
Regarding this plan, he has announced that they are preparing a report to lower the ratios in schools or double the teaching staff in classrooms where, due to space, it is not possible to reduce them, as well as discussing the training that the teaching staff needs to develop the initiative or the collaboration with universities.
"Curiously, many of these axes coincide with those measures that the State School Council has just announced. If that is the path to follow, we have already traveled part of that path," he concluded.