ANPE, the leading union among teachers in non-university public education at the state and regional level, urges the Education and Health ministries to "rethink the intervention protocol for suicidal risk in educational institutions of the Canary Islands for the 2025-2026 academic year." The union organization recalls that "there are relevant contributions from teachers that continue to go unanswered, with barely two weeks left before classes begin, despite the commitment acquired in this regard by the Administration at the technical table on this issue held on April 8."
The regional president of ANPE, Pedro Crespo, points out that “the current protocol is cumbersome and inapplicable in some aspects, and is not well adapted to the particularities of educational centers or the reality of the work of teaching staff on a daily basis.” Likewise, he recalls that “the document assigns very delicate functions to teachers that, by their nature, correspond to the scope of health professionals specializing in mental health; among them, and in a marked way, the evaluation of the level of suicidal risk.”
Crespo misses "a greater involvement of the Ministry of Health in this matter." In this sense, he insists on ANPE's proposal that "teams of health professionals be formed on all the islands who are specialized in acting on suicidal risk in educational centers." “If these units were created,” he emphasizes, “the centers could contact them directly when a possible case occurs so that they can attend and intervene on the same day.”
For the president of ANPE Canarias, the way the protocol is currently structured "favors placing the burden of responsibility on teachers in situations for which they are not prepared." Thus, he emphasizes that "teaching staff are willing to collaborate and train to face possible cases in the best possible way, but without invading the field of mental health specialists in a matter so delicate for the lives of students."
Crespo recalls that, in a survey promoted by the union, "the teachers themselves have pointed out different deficiencies in the document, such as the lack of clarity in its wording and its excessive complexity."
Therefore, he insists on "the need for the regional Administration to take it to negotiation with the representation of the teaching staff as soon as possible, so that the new protocol can be in force from the first quarter of the 2025-2026 academic year."