The Ministry of Education of the Government of the Canary Islands will take charge of the transport "until the end of the course" of the 3rd and 4th year ESO students of the IES of Costa Teguise who live between two and five kilometers away after the claim of the AMPA of the school, which requested the regional Executive to assume this service after learning that the City Council was going to have to stop providing it.
"It seems that the Ministry is going to assume the cost of transportation and we are very happy," said the president of the AMPA of the IES of Costa Teguise, Blanca Torres, who pointed out that "55 students benefit." "For the moment, it assumes it until the end of the course, but we would like the issue to be resolved definitively between now and September," she added.
It should be remembered that, as La Voz reported at the time, in the case of 3rd and 4th year ESO students, the Canary Islands School Transport Law only contemplates this service for students who reside at least five kilometers away.
A "obsolete" and "discriminatory" law
Last year and so far this year, the City Council had solved it by paying an additional bus from its Education funds for families who needed that transport, but a new Comptroller's Office has come, says that this is not the responsibility of the City Council, and that for administrative reasons it cannot be paid," explained the president of the AMPA on February 9, who met with the island director of Education to demand that the Government assume the service, as there are "14-year-old children who have to walk an hour" having to go "through open fields" and "somewhat dangerous" sections.
The representative of the mothers and fathers of the students of the IES of Costa Teguise has insisted, however, on the need for the law to be modified, as in her opinion "it is obsolete" and also "discriminatory." And it is that, to the requirement of distance, it is added that transport is only contemplated for compulsory education, so "students of Infant and Bachelor are not given it." "I hope that the law will change and the Ministry intends to," said Blanca Torres.
"The City Council has been very involved"
The president of the AMPA of the IES of Costa Teguise concluded by highlighting "the great effort" made by the City Council of Teguise in this matter. "It has been very involved," thanked Blanca Torres, pointing out that she has learned that the Government assumes the service by the Councilor for Education of the Consistory, Francisco Javier Díaz. "This week the City Council was paying it and last week it would start with the Ministry. I suppose there will be a continuity, that the change will be simple"
