The Minister of Education of the Government of the Canary Islands, Isaac Godoy, has acknowledged the existence of some delays in the execution of the South Plan to provide Lanzarote with new educational centers in the face of the growth of school-age children on the island. The problems of transferring land in Arrecife, Playa Blanca and Playa Honda are the reasons given by Godoy to explain the delay, although at the same time the General Director of Infrastructure, reported at the opening ceremony of the Tinajo dining room, the execution of more than 60% of the SUR plan.
The rest of the centers contemplated in the plan, located in Playa Blanca, Teguise, San Bartolomé and Arrecife, will be built until 2008, the deadline in which the SUR program ends.
On the other hand, the Minister believes that the lack of adaptation to current safety regulations, which at least 53 educational centers on the island suffer, as denounced three weeks ago by STEC Intersindical Canarias, responds to the antiquity of these centers, built when the powers of Education were state territory and therefore their infrastructures have not been adapted to current needs and regulations.
Godoy clarified that the centers under construction respect the safety and accessibility regulations established by law and assured that the oldest schools and institutes are gradually incorporating the required evacuation routes, fire-fighting equipment and eliminating architectural barriers.
The Canarian head of Education has learned of the need to improve the infrastructure of the island's educational centers from the mayors of Tinajo, Tías, Teguise, San Bartolomé and Yaiza, who attended the meeting held at the Tinajo Town Hall, but recalled that many of these necessary works depend on the Reform, Expansion and Improvement (RAM) plan, which is the responsibility of the town councils.
Godoy took the opportunity to express his desire that the representatives of the educational institutions with whom he meets "not only come to ask for things, but also to offer what they believe, what they can" to enrich the education of our children.
After the meeting, Isaac Godoy, together with the mayors, the president of the Cabildo and the director of Educational Promotion, Rafael González, visited the newly opened dining room of the Virgen de los Volcanes public school in Tinajo. The Minister had the opportunity to chat with the children while they ate in the new dining room, which has its own kitchen, where the menus are prepared for the 150 children who can eat there.
During the event, the mayor of Tinajo explained the budgetary effort involved in the 100,000 euros invested in the dining room, but he is satisfied because it provides a solution for the "children of the keys around their necks who have to prepare their own food".