The Platform for 5% for Education denounces that the Autonomous Community's budgets for 2026 "fail to comply, once again, with the Canary Islands Education Law (LCE)." On this occasion, the educational investment is 4.07% of the Canary Islands Gross Domestic Product, only two hundredths above the 2025 budget, 4.05%.
The Platform has publicly lamented that the public accounts for the third year of the legislature "continue on a path that places us far from the 5% established by said law. In this regard, they have pointed out that the lack of investment prevents "the Canary Islands from adequately addressing its priorities": expansion of early childhood education, attention to student diversity, reduction of ratios, increase in staff, improvement of infrastructure, or development of Vocational Training.
Although in the budget project that the Government of the Canary Islands recently sent to Parliament, education grows in absolute numbers by 167 million euros (6.87%), for this Platform it "barely represents a small step forward on the path to reaching 5%." In the previous legislature, it was possible to reach 4.63%, the best figure so far. "If in the first two years of the legislature education moved like crabs, regressing with respect to GDP in 2024 (4.20%) and 2025 (4.05%), now it advances like snails, a timid two hundredths," the Platform continued.
The Canary Islands Education Law and the 5% commitment
The Canary Islands Education Law (2014) establishes in its articles that, as of 2022, the Canary Islands must allocate at least 5% of its GDP to Education in order to undertake the programs and actions necessary to overcome the educational gap in the Canary Islands and accelerate the improvement of its educational indicators.
Four years after the deadline established by law, the education budget will remain, as indicated in the draft Budget for 2026, almost one percentage point below what is established by law and registers an investment deficit of 595 million euros, which is preventing the leap forward that our children and youth need.
In practice, these budgets mean not being able to tackle the challenges facing education in the Canary Islands with the necessary resources: expansion of early childhood education, attention to the diversity of students, reduction of ratios, increase in staff, improvement of infrastructure, development of vocational training, etc.
Resources needed "If we want our children, our girls, and our youth to have the future they deserve, it is necessary for politicians to move from bombastic statements and good intentions to assuming concrete commitments and allocating the necessary resources for it," she maintained. The Platform for 5% for Education has urged the Government of the Canary Islands to value the education of citizens and allocate the necessary resources to guarantee quality education, in line with international standards and the expectations of the educational community. Investment in education is an investment in the future of the Canary Islands, and it is crucial that it be prioritized in the budget to ensure a solid path towards a better education system.
