This Thursday at 5:00 p.m. there will be a concentration in front of the IES Zonzamas of Arrecife. The mobilization has been called by the parents of students and by the students themselves of the center, as a way to make visible their rejection of the changes proposed by the Canarian Ministry of Education to create the FP center in Zonzamas. Students, parents and teachers have been criticizing the "improvisation" of Education and this Tuesday they have decided to show their "indignation" jointly in a press conference, in which they have announced the call for that concentration.
Equipped with banners that reflected their rejection of the changes proposed by Education, they have stated that these imply the "segregation" of their educational community. The students who are currently studying Secondary and Baccalaureate in Zonzamas and the teachers who teach those courses will move to Mercedes Medina, but Education announced that "provisionally" part of the students and teachers will move to IES Arrecife. That provisional solution will last for 4 courses. Faced with this, the educational community of Zonzamas, which had been demanding its "en bloc" departure to Mercedes Medina within two courses, has insisted that their "requirements" have not been "met". "We are integrated into a new educational community with its own educational project," said the representative of the teachers, pointing out that this "merger of educational communities" is not "convenient."
"If we are transferred, let it be done en bloc. To this end, let the current students of IES Zonzamas be displaced with their teachers to IES Mercedes Medina in the 2017/18 academic year instead of to IES Arrecife," the representative of the School Board defended during the press conference. In addition, she showed "total and absolute support" to the teachers of the center. Professor Guillermo Almeida spoke on behalf of the teachers, emphasizing that they are not "worried" about their "positions", but that they are "fighting for the quality of education of our students." However, according to what he pointed out, this may also imply that some "five or seven" substitute teachers lose their positions.
Almeida pointed out that, "for the time being", with "the improvisation the Ministry has managed to start dispersing students", who are "pre-enrolling in other centers". This professor also regretted that the Ministry has understood that "en bloc referred only to teachers, to its employees". In addition, he pointed out that they are seeking the support of different political forces, "because education is everyone's business, not just those who have the power."
It is "imposition, not dialogue"
This professor pointed out that they do not "believe" the latest explanations from Education, which has assured them that there are "11 free classrooms" in IES Arrecife for the students of Zonzamas. In this sense, he asked "how is it possible" that the students of La Destila school have been "transhuming" or receiving classes "in barracks" if this space was available. In any case, he reiterated that, even if it were, they believe that the proposal to integrate into that center for the next 4 courses is not "convenient" and stressed that they fear that in those 4 years the teachers with a position will end up "dispersing", because they decide to request it in other centers. As they had been defending, Guillermo Almeida pointed out that this "improvisation can be avoided", making the transition "in two years" and with the en bloc departure of teachers and students to Mercedes Medina.
Both the representative of the teaching staff and the representative of the parents, Charo Andújar, have criticized the attitude of the Ministry, which they consider an "imposition" and not "dialogue". In addition, "in view of this policy of improvisation", Andújar has stated that they fear that "next year they will not give them the accounts and decide to do something else".
Thus, they believe that Education has imposed a "save yourself who can" and have stated that they are "willing to talk" to find a "consensual" solution. In this sense, they have stressed that these are changes that not only affect them. In fact, Education has proposed modifications that affect a total of 8 centers in Arrecife. "That it touches us is to touch the others," said Almeida. This professor has stated that one of the "collateral effects" of the measures may be the "increase in ratios" in the different centers.
"We want to record our indignation at feeling deceived with the suppression of the IES that had been promised to us for 10 years," criticizes the manifesto of the School Board, which also lamented that "during all this time the CEIP Nieves Toledo has been a nomad of Secondary Education in Arrecife: School of Fishing, Zonzamas and now IES Arrecife".
Thus, they have shown their "absolute incredulity at the destruction of the IES Zonzmas, that of the CEIP Mercedes Medina and the dispersion of the CEIP La Destila". "We do not understand at all the so-called reorganization of the school map".
