A first contact. This is what they did yesterday in the meeting held between the new Minister of Education, Culture and Sports of the Government of the Canary Islands, Isaac Godoy, and the mayors of the seven municipalities of Lanzarote. The meeting served for the mayors to convey to the minister the problems of the educational map of the Island. In this sense, the main difficulties are focused on the land where the schools and institutes will be located as well as the extensions "although all these needs are foreseen", highlighted the Minister of Education and Culture of the Cabildo of Lanzarote, Juan Cruz, who was also at the meeting. For this, there are three levels of priority and some of the most outstanding actions are the construction of an Education and Primary center and another of Secondary in the Arrecife neighborhood of Argana Alta or qualifying an area of Costa Teguise for the construction of an institute.
Related to the situation of the land, one of the priorities of the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports is the South Plan, that is, the project with which it is intended to improve the integration of the school population, standardize the educational infrastructure with that of the rest of the archipelago, building the necessary centers for a correct schooling and providing them with the necessary resources and establishing a training system that allows the correct professional insertion of young people and the adult population. In the case of Lanzarote, there are 23 actions that are divided into the construction of new centers or the expansion of existing ones. On this, Isaac Godoy assured that the objective is that all the projects are completed in the 2006/2007 academic year. "The percentage of action so far is normal although we have to solve the problems we have with the land," explained the Minister of Education, Culture and Sports. However, Isaac Godoy assumed that some of the delays come from the ministry itself "and I cannot blame them on another institution". This does not mean that some actions are already a reality, as is the case of the IES Puerto del Carmen, which will begin operating next school year and which the area minister visited yesterday after the meeting with the mayors.
This need to build or expand educational centers arose due to the constant population growth of Lanzarote with the continuous arrival of immigrants. Despite the South Plan, Isaac Godoy emphasized that it is a complicated situation "because although we plan an increase in the population in an area, we may find that it is not fulfilled or suddenly a large number of immigrants of school age arrive in an area," explained the Minister of Education, Culture and Sports.
Despite the setbacks, Isaac Godoy highlighted the work done by both the town councils and the First Island Institution to solve the educational problems. In this sense, he hopes that the good understanding and willingness between all administrations will be maintained to achieve an improvement in the entire education system on the Island.