The Governing Council has approved the tender for more than 79.8 euros for the multi-year contract to hire educational assistants. The contract, planned for the period 2027-2029 and managed through the General Directorate of Curriculum Planning, Inclusion and Innovation, will serve students with disabilities, autism spectrum disorder (ASD), severe behavioral disorders (SBD) and with special health conditions, enrolled in public educational centers in the Canary Islands.
The tender includes two lots for each year: the first, valued at 35,405,795.46 euros (at a rate of 11,801,931.82 euros per year) and the second lot, of 44,412,539.28 euros (14,804,179.76 euros per year).
However, the budget planned for 2027, based on the tender, will be 26.6 million annually, which the Ministry of Education estimates as an increase of 104% compared to the last budget of the previous government.
In addition, to these figures must be added close to 1.5 million euros more for the hiring of workshop assistants, and early childhood education technicians and health personnel hired directly by the Ministry of Education and through Health, respectively.
"Important improvements", according to Education
The new tender incorporates important improvements, such as the increase in the permanence of this personnel in the centers, which goes from a maximum of five to 6.5 hours per day, a fact that, together with the review of prices, will mean an improvement in the working conditions of the workers.
In addition, it contemplates the coverage of the school canteen service, which is not currently included, as well as the service to school residences that host students with special educational needs (SEN).
Improvements are also planned in the coordination for the participation of this personnel in complementary activities and participation in extracurricular activities, even with overnight stays (for example, during camps or study trips).
The successful bidder must obligatorily have a job pool for agile substitutions, and carry them out within a maximum established period, as well as sufficient personnel to cover the service on all islands, with special attention to the non-capital ones, and train its personnel in specific matters of attention to students with SEN.
A contract that is provided in nullity
Education explains that it must be remembered that the service is currently provided by the company Aeromédica Canaria SLU, through a contract from March 2016, which had an extraordinary extension of one year, and that since March 2021 it has been provided in nullity.
Through this external contracting, the company provides auxiliary staff for the care of students with special educational needs (ASD, physical disabilities or intellectual, motor, auditory disabilities…) in mainstream classrooms, Enclave classrooms, special education centers (CEE) and preferred centers for students with motor and/or auditory disabilities, with professional profiles that include caregivers (educational assistants), workshop assistants, nurses and physiotherapists (for CEE) and nursing assistants, Spanish Sign Language interpreters (ILSE) and Spanish Sign Language specialists (ELSE).
In addition, but directly, the Ministry of Education hires early childhood education technicians for the care of students with special educational needs and special educational needs and difficulties in the early childhood stage (through the PROA+ program and the Territorial Cooperation Program for Inclusive Education); educational assistants, workshop assistants; nurses (for CEE) and occupational therapists (for CEE, Educational and Psychopedagogical Guidance Teams-EOEPS for motor disabilities and the NEAE+21 pilot project), to whom nursing professionals (within the framework of the school nursing program) and occupational therapy (for some CEE) provided by the Canary Islands Health Service are added.
All this staff acts as an auxiliary and support resource for teachers (the only ones with educational responsibility) in the mainstream classroom, promoting the inclusion of students with special educational needs and special health conditions; in Enclave classrooms, guaranteeing the development and acquisition of autonomy and skills that allow students to return to a mainstream schooling modality, in addition to supporting the socialization plan of the students, promoting their inclusion in the mainstream classroom and center activities, and in CEEs, promoting the development and skills of the students and, where possible, their return to a more inclusive schooling modality, as well as care work (especially healthcare) with students with a higher degree of impairment.
The new tender contemplates the bidding of all services currently provided by Aeromédica except for the workshop assistant service, given that the SGT is working on a file for the creation of RPT positions, with the aim of this professional profile being directly contracted by the Ministry of Education.
“Therefore, not only are the budgets improved, but also the conditions and characteristics of the contract designed by the previous government, whose loopholes have been the cause of a large part of the problems that the current team has had to face, which we are also solving despite the difficulties we have encountered during this time,” explained Poli Suárez, who recalled that the 2022/23 academic year (the last of the previous legislature) began with 940 assistants (incorporated during the first quarter, and not in September) and ended with 998, while the current academic year, 2025/26, began with 1,500 workers on the first day of class and currently reaches 1,902.
Finally, the budget for 2023 for this external service was thirteen million euros, and, in this 2026, it amounts to 22, confirming “our undeniable commitment to these students and their families,” according to Poli Suárez.
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