The Ministry of Education, Vocational Training, Physical Activity and Sports of the Government of the Canary Islands and the General Secretariat of Penitentiary Institutions, under the Ministry of the Interior, have initiated contacts for the signing of a new agreement to formalize educational coordination between both administrations and expand the training offer to people deprived of their liberty in the penitentiary centers of the archipelago.
This first meeting, held in Madrid, was headed by the regional Minister of Education, Poli Suárez, and the General Secretary of Penitentiary Institutions, Ángel Luis Ortiz, as well as members of their respective teams. In this meeting, both parties agreed on the importance of moving towards an agreement that allows further improvement of the opportunities for social and labor reintegration of people in situations of deprivation of liberty, for which upcoming technical working groups will be held until the final document is closed.
"As it cannot be otherwise, the Ministry's predisposition is absolute to sign this agreement with Penitentiary Institutions," said the Minister, Poli Suárez, "because it allows us to give formal coverage to the magnificent work being done by the teaching staff and the prison staff, with all those people who want to train in such a complex context." In this sense, Suárez stressed, "both teachers and students in prisons are part of the educational system, so they also deserve the best attention and the new opportunity that education offers them."
Current situation
Currently, the Ministry of Education allocates to the teaching units of the five penitentiary centers of the Canary Islands -Las Palmas I and II, Lanzarote, La Palma and Tenerife- fourteen full-time teachers and another four part-time teachers, twenty-one Secondary Education teachers full-time and another five part-time, as well as six Baccalaureate teachers and eleven Vocational Training teachers, on a half-time basis in both cases.
The training offer adapted by the Government of the Canary Islands is developed through the Attached Classrooms for Adults (AAPA), linked to the Adult Education Centers (CEPA) Las Palmas-Cono Sur, San Bartolomé de Tirajana, Titerroygatra, Guayafanta and Farola de Santa Cruz, and offers different training options, aimed at acquiring qualifications and improving academic and professional skills.
Among the available teachings, the Initial Education for Adults (EIPA) allows developing basic reading, writing, mathematics and digital skills over two courses, each with between six and nine weekly teaching hours, respectively. For its part, Secondary Education for Adults (ESPA) offers the possibility of obtaining the Graduate in ESO (compulsory secondary education) degree in two courses with a teaching load of twenty hours per week. Also within the same training proposal is the Baccalaureate for Adults (BPA), which is taught remotely with the support of the Distance Education Centers (CEAD), which allocate specific hours to attend to this type of student.
Along with these teachings, the penitentiary centers of the Canary Islands offer three other training alternatives: the preparation course for the free test to obtain the Graduate in ESO (PPGESO), which consists of a fifteen-hour weekly course; access to intermediate-level training cycles (CDA), an academic year of ten hours per week, or the option of directly completing an intermediate-level training cycle (CFGM).
More than 1,500 enrollments
During the 2023/24 academic year, 1,556 people out of the 3,139 who were in a situation of deprivation of liberty in the Canary Islands enrolled in one of the six available training modalities. The majority, that is, 83%, opted either for Secondary Education for Adults (ESPA) or for Initial Education for Adults (EIPA). Specifically, the first of these includes 721 students distributed in 24 groups, while another 576, divided into thirty groups, are taking the second.
The rest of the students are distributed among Baccalaureate for Adults (BPA), with 160 students, intermediate-level training cycles (CFGM), with 39 students in 4 groups, and the preparation course for the free test of Graduate in ESO (PPGESO), in which another twenty people are enrolled, in a single group.
By islands, the distribution is as follows: Tenerife (495 students), Las Palmas II (476), Las Palmas I (446), Lanzarote (74) and La Palma (65).
With the aim of guaranteeing the best possible educational attention, the Ministry of Education carries out continuous monitoring through periodic meetings with the penitentiary centers, in which progress is analyzed, areas for improvement are identified and measures are proposed to optimize the training provided.
In addition to the Minister of Education, Vocational Training, Physical Activity and Sports of the Government of the Canary Islands, Poli Suárez, and the General Secretary of Penitentiary Institutions, Ángel Luis Ortiz, the Director General of Penal Execution and Social Reintegration, Miguel Ángel Vicente, the Coordinator of Treatment and Penitentiary Management, Lourdes Gil, and, on behalf of the Ministry, the Deputy Minister of Education, José Manuel Cabrera, and the Director General of Administration of Centers, Schooling and Complementary Services, David Crego, also attended the meeting.
