The school year starts this year in Lanzarote with the opening of an important demand from the island's educational community, such as the Integrated Vocational Training Center. In addition, the island also has a new Secondary school, the IES Altavista, which could soon be renamed Mercedes Medina.
These are the novelties that the island's director of Education, Mario Pérez, has highlighted at the start of the school year. Infant and Primary school students already returned to classes this Monday and this Wednesday Secondary school students will do so. In total, 20,386 students, not counting those linked to FP, as registration is still open for some cycles. "We will be quite equal to last year. In Lanzarote there has been no drop in students that is occurring in the State as a whole and in the Canary Islands, where schools are being closed for not having students", Pérez pointed out.
Regarding the start of the school year in Infant and Primary, the island's director of Education has assured on Radio Lanzarote-Onda Cero that it was carried out "normally", although he has recognized that "some teachers were missing in some centers" and that even "last night an appointment was made". "There are places for certain specialties that are difficult to fill, mainly because the lists are exhausted. To our knowledge, there is some difficulty in some centers, but not like last year", said Mario Pérez, who insisted that "they are minor issues".
Asked about whether teachers who move to Lanzarote have problems getting rental housing, the island's director of Education has denied that they are having many difficulties. In this regard, Pérez has acknowledged that "when the substitutions are short, teachers do not find it because the apartments are not rented for 15 days", but he has stated that "when they are longer and for the whole year" they are not having "so many difficulties". "The owners know that it is a guarantee to rent to a teacher because they have it for the whole year and also leave it free in summer", he added
Small investments and large works
The island's director of Education has also listed some investments made in schools by both the town councils and the Government of the Canary Islands. Thus, he said that, among others, works have been done in the IES Blas Cabrera, in the CEO of Argana, in Tinajo, in Los Geranios, in the IES of Altavista and in Uga, where a new classroom, bathrooms and warehouses have been built. "Necessary works have been done to start the course", he pointed out. The IES Arrecife, for its part, has changed its name to Las Maretas.
Mario Pérez has also spoken about the "three major works" underway on the island in terms of Education, such as the new La Destila school, "which is very advanced". "The same company is building the CEO of Playa Blanca and in the coming months we will see a totally necessary infrastructure". Regarding the IEs of HAría, he stated that they have encountered "difficulties in channeling issues that the City Council is facing". "I always say that this is the legislature of education, because the investments are very important not only for Lanzarote but in the Canary Islands as a whole", he concluded.