Oswaldo Betancort, mayor of Teguise, received in the consistorial office the vice-counselor of Education, Universities and Sports of the Government of the Canary Islands, María Dolores Rodríguez, and the director of the area in Lanzarote, Celeste Callero, to whom he thanked "the prompt response to his request to hold a monographic meeting in which to put on the table the needs of Teguise in educational matters".
The first point addressed, a priority for the Government group of Teguise, has been the construction of the future CEIP of Costa Teguise, for which the City Council ceded 20,000 square meters of municipal land in 2017, and whose project is included in the Educational Infrastructure Plan.
"We request the vice-counselor of Education to intercede and support Teguise's proposal to promote the project and construction of the future school in Costa Teguise, whose land is already included in the patrimonial registry of the Government of the Canary Islands, and whose dimensions would allow allocating a part of the plot to the expansion of the IES Costa Teguise", declared Oswaldo Betancort.
"The population census continues to grow in Costa Teguise, and the Public Administration must respond to the new needs, both in infrastructure and services, for that reason, we request the Ministry of Education to unblock the contracting of the project and in turn expedite the execution of the work of the future CEIP to reduce the deadlines so that said infrastructure is a reality as soon as possible", said Oswaldo Betancort.
In this regard, Rodríguez assured that "a diagnosis of the execution status of the Educational Infrastructure Plan is being carried out on all the islands, in order to assume priorities, and in this case, we have encountered a great delay and economic limitations in the General Directorate of Infrastructure".
The next point addressed in this first monographic meeting was the lack of funding for the transportation of ESO students who do not have preference for living less than 5 kilometers from their center. "To this day, Teguise continues to bear the cost of the daily travel of young people from Tiagua, Muñique, Tinajo, and some areas of Costa Teguise", explained Betancort, "but it is not a municipal competence and the Government of the Canary Islands must recognize that these students are helpless and have to find a solution".
Urgent reforms in several centers
The highest responsible of the City Council of Teguise, accompanied by the councilor of the area, Javier Díaz, listed the list of deficiencies in the facilities of the educational centers of Teguise and La Graciosa.
"The City Council has complied with its obligations in terms of maintenance and conservation, but some centers, as is the case of the current CEIP Costa Teguise, require urgent reforms, such as channeling to avoid major problems in case of rain; the roofing of sports courts; or the improvement of electrical installations, as in the case of the CEO Ignacio Aldecoa", Betancort detailed.
Likewise, the habilitation of shade areas in the schoolyards is a common demand in all centers, as recently stated by the management of the centers of Costa Teguise and La Villa. In the latter, they have also insisted on a claim from parents for lack of teachers, which has forced the formation of mixed groups in the classrooms.
In addition, and taking into account the extensive network of unit schools in Teguise, Oswaldo Betancort proposed to the vice-counselor of Education the option of creating a specific line of funding for their perfect maintenance: "Rural schools are very important for Teguise and we have always promoted their continuity, but we need economic support so that they do not disappear", to which the island director of Education, Celeste Callero, responded that "their stability will be guaranteed". In that sense, both the Island Director of Education and the vice-counselor agree that "the unit schools fulfill a very valuable social and educational work".
Finally, María Dolores Rodríguez committed to "raise all the issues raised by Teguise to the Directorate of Educational Infrastructure and the rest of the Government colleagues in the different island areas depending on each need, and expressed her desire to advance and ensure greater educational quality in the municipality of Teguise".
