More than 27,000 teachers and 4,000 non-teaching staff have joined their jobs this Monday on the islands in 851 public education centers, just one week before the start of the 2024/2025 school year, announced the Minister of Education, Vocational Training, Physical Activity and Sports of the Government of the Canary Islands, Poli Suárez, during the press conference after the Governing Council.
Thus, together with the spokesperson for the regional Executive, Alfonso Cabello, Suárez recalled that, in general, the course will officially begin on the islands next Monday, September 9, when it is expected that 170,749 students will join the classrooms of Infant, Primary and Compulsory Secondary Education (ESO), except in Gran Canaria, due to the Pino festival, on Sunday 8, or those municipalities such as Antigua, in Fuerteventura, where Monday 9 is a local holiday and the school activity will begin the following day, Tuesday 10.
This will not prevent, however, the municipality of Majorera from inaugurating, on the same Monday, and coinciding with the official opening of the course throughout the Canary Islands, its new Center for Early Childhood and Primary Education (CEIP) in the town of El Castillo. The President of the Government, Fernando Clavijo, will move there that day to, together with Poli Suárez and other regional, island and local authorities, present the new facilities to the educational community and inaugurate, also in this way, the new school year.
Long demanded in Fuerteventura, this school will join the network of public Canarian centers together with the Secondary Education Institute (IES) Agáldar, in Gran Canaria; the Integrated Vocational Training Center (CIFP) Adeje, in Tenerife, and three new special education centers (CEE), which will also open their doors soon in Santa Lucía de Tirajana (Gran Canaria) and in Icod de los Vinos and Adeje (Tenerife).
These infrastructures, which have involved a total investment of more than 27 million euros, between works (23,299,239.03 euros) and equipment (four million), and to which 35 new Enclave classrooms will also have to be added throughout the course, are some of the main novelties of the course that begins, but not the only ones.
Thus, the number of places for students from two to three years old increases by 570, going from the 1,217 already existing in the 2023-2024 academic year to the 1,787 of the course that begins, in which, however, and as the works are completed, another 839 could open, up to a total of 2,626. In addition, and for the first time, there will be public places for students from zero years old, with the opening, for the first time in the Canary Islands, of a classroom from zero to one and another two for students from one to two years old. It will be in the CEIP Tigaday, in the Herreño municipality of La Frontera.
In this way, "the Government of the Canary Islands is beginning to offer the entire first cycle (0-3) of Early Childhood Education, since, until now, only classrooms for students from two to three years old had been opened in the islands," explained Suárez, who announced that in the coming weeks he also plans to go to the Isla del Meridiano to officially present this new educational offer there.
Lower ratios and more inclusion
In addition, as agreed with the unions a few months ago, the Minister of Education has also recalled this Monday that, in the new course, the maximum ratio will decrease in the fourth year of Infant and first year of ESO, from 20 to 18 and from 27 to 25 students per group, respectively.
Likewise, mixed groups will be eliminated in the second cycle of Primary in centers with more than eight units and ratios of counselors, Therapeutic Pedagogy (PT) professionals and Hearing and Language teachers will also be reduced, for the benefit of students with specific educational support needs (NEAE), which continues to be one of the priorities of the Government in educational matters, as demonstrated by the implementation of a new model of Adapted FP.
This plan guarantees the permanence of students in the educational system from 16 to 33 years old with the inclusion of two training itineraries aimed at promoting the labor insertion of young people with disabilities: +16 and +21 Capacítate.
Vocational Training and other novelties
Regarding the rest of the FP, already fully dual, 150 cycles are offered in the new course of the, for the first time, 26 professional families, including three new basic grade training cycles, another three medium grade, two higher grade and four professional master's degrees.
Specifically, as had also been announced in previous months, these are the basic professional degrees in Access and Conservation in Sports Facilities; Maintenance of Sports and Recreational Boats; and Glassware and Pottery; the degrees of medium technician in Guide in the Natural Environment and Free Time, in Security and in Maintenance of Railway Rolling Stock; the degrees of higher technician in Water Management and in Training for Safe and Sustainable Mobility and the master's courses of Specialization in Remotely Piloted Aircraft-Drones; in Collaborative Robotics; in Search Engine Optimization (SEO/SEM) and Communication in Social Networks; and in Writing Digital Content for Marketing and Sales.
And all this, betting on a more effective management of educational centers and the improvement of student well-being, according to the resolution published by the Ministry of Education, Vocational Training, Physical Activity and Sports with the instructions for organization and operation of its educational centers for the next academic year.
It should be remembered that, as novelties, the aforementioned resolution also included the reduction of the teaching load for management teams, the increase in hours for welfare coordinators or the incorporation, in general, of equality and heritage coordinators.
Calendar and intensive day
Except in Gran Canaria and where it is a local holiday, where they will do so on the 10th, classes in Infant, Primary and Secondary Education will begin on September 9 and, in general, will end on June 20, 2025.
From September 10, classes will begin in Baccalaureate, Baccalaureate for Adults, Grade D of the Vocational Training System and Adapted Vocational Training Programs, Elementary and Professional Music Education, Intermediate and Higher Grade Cycles of Plastic Arts and Design, Sports and Higher Artistic Education of Music, Design and Dramatic Art, as well as in the so-called Aula Mentor and Basic Computing, while on the 23rd they will begin for Distance English or That ́s English!, preparation for the entrance exams to Training Cycles and for the free exam to directly obtain the Graduate of Compulsory Secondary Education, as well as for the Special Regime Language Education.
In these cases, classes will end between May 8, 2025 (preparation for the entrance exams to Training Cycles) and June 20, with special mention to the second year of Baccalaureate and Baccalaureate for Adults, where they will end on May 16 for the realization of the entrance exams to the university (the PAU is scheduled from June 4 to 7, in ordinary call, and from July 2 to 4, in the extraordinary) and second year of the Higher Grade Training Cycles of Vocational Training and Plastic Arts and Design, whose completion will take place on May 29.
For its part, the calendar for preparation for the entrance exams to the university for people over 25 years old will be established once the corresponding dates are made public by each of the universities and, from June 2, the classification and certification tests will begin in Special Regime Language Education.
Finally, also as a novelty, in the levels of Early Childhood Education and Primary Education, and in the Special Education Centers (CEE), classes will be taught in an intensive day regime in the period from the beginning of the school activity until September 13, 2024 and between June 16, 2025 and the end of the aforementioned activity (June 20).
During this intensive day, which is reduced therefore this course to one week at the beginning of the course and another week at the end of it, the student's schedule will decrease by one hour a day at the end of the day, making the corresponding adaptations for this.
