PHOTOS: Sergio Betancort
The educational community of IES Zonzamas has appealed to the "responsibility" of the Ministry of Education of the Government of the Canary Islands, which has finally agreed to receive the parents and teachers of the center. Under this premise, they have publicly asked you to accept their proposal that the students and teachers move 'en bloc' to the future IES Mercedes Medina in the 2017-2018 academic year. Representatives of parents, teachers and students offered a joint press conference this Wednesday to put "the status of their requests and their "expectations, in the face of the end of the school year and the electoral campaign" to the attention of the public".
This educational community has publicly reiterated its demands after learning that Education will finally receive them. Parents, teachers and students have been expressing their opposition for weeks to the changes proposed by Education in order to create the integrated FP center. They have collected signatures, organized mobilizations and protests and submitted writings to the Ministry, which until now, according to what they had denounced, had not had a response. That, they explain, changed this Wednesday, when they were informed of the "intention that representatives of this community be attended by the Minister of Education". They regret, however, that parents are summoned on the one hand and teachers on the other, "without remembering to respond to the students". "We are still concerned that the Ministry continues without understanding what an educational community is. We do not understand this separative approach," they pointed out.
That union of their educational community is precisely the argument that they have wielded until now and that they once again claimed this Wednesday. "The Ministry of Education has the responsibility to accept a solution that gives them an Integrated Vocational Training Center at zero cost, an IES with a reference Baccalaureate in Altavista for now, and the continuity of an educational community, thus preventing two from disappearing instead of one," they defended. They also emphasize that "in this way, it also maintains reasonable ratios in the other educational centers of the capital, avoiding the overcrowding of classrooms due to the dispersion of students from the IES Zonzamas, in centers closer to their home".
"Any other decision would be irresponsible"
Their proposal that the transfer of students and teachers from IES Zonzamas to the future IES Mercedes Medina be carried out in the 2017-2018 academic year, was also supported by the parents of CEIP Los Geranios, where the students of Mercedes Medina should move. In addition, the educational community of Zonzamas points out that "all the political formations of the island, unions and institutions consulted" consider it "a coherent, sensible proposal that responds to the CIFP and the educational demand of the northern area of Arrecife, minimizing the damage to educational communities".
They also consider that "after the efforts made at the island level, we are at a time when it is possible to meet between the three educational communities most affected by the reorganization of the school map of Arrecife. For this, it is necessary that the Ministry of Education commits to finish the necessary works by September 2017". "Any other decision would be irresponsible and the snub of the political representatives of Lanzarote," they emphasize.
Finally, the teachers, students and parents of Zonzamas wanted to "record" the consensus of their proposal. They highlight "the commitment to this joint project that this community has made with the school community of Altavista, assuming the commitment to share a center by teachers with a permanent position at IES Zonzamas who would not have to do so, even when we do not know what response the Ministry will give to our project".
