Ramona Martín de León, a teacher from Lanzarote, will travel to Tenerife this Friday to receive the Viera y Clavijo distinction, within the non-university community. The award ceremony will be held at the Integrated Vocational Training Center (CIFP) Las Indias, in the capital of Tenerife.
The teacher retired this year after more than thirty years dedicated to teaching, and will receive this distinction due to her “meritorious career and dedication”. The award is granted by the Ministry of Education, Universities, Culture and Sports of the Government of the Canary Islands, which communicated its decision to the winners almost a month ago.
“It was very flattering, because I always considered myself a hardworking and calm teacher, and the least I expected was to receive the Viera y Clavijo distinction,” Ramona Martín tells La Voz. The teacher arrived at CEIP Guiguan in Mancha Blanca in 1999, after spending a few years rotating through different schools on the island, although the first one she worked at when she was 26 years old was in Pájara, in Fuerteventura.
"I was very comfortable as soon as I arrived at Guiguan, as it is a super family school, and I stayed for 22 years," recalls the teacher, who despite being retired says she still goes to the educational center and maintains contact with those who were her colleagues on the faculty.
“When you heard Viera y Clavijo you thought it was a very high status, and it was a pride that the director thought of me and proposed my name,” adds the teacher. And she assures that at CEIP Guiguan they always carried out a "discreet work, in silence and together with the colleagues of the faculty". In the more than two decades that she was at the educational center, Ramona became the director of the school, although in 2003 she had to give up the position.
Ramona Martín de León emphasizes that, although she will be the one to receive the Viera y Clavijo distinction this Friday, June 3, the merit extends to the colleagues who were "battling" for a quality education.
"I always say that education is given first at home, and then at school. I always tried to make my students, especially the most disadvantaged ones that we have also had, study, fight, because everyone has to be prepared," she concludes.