The Ministry of Education, Vocational Training, Physical Activity and Sports of the Government of the Canary Islands has approved an extraordinary investment of 39,988 euros for the acquisition of technological material for educational purposes for each of the thirteen school residences that currently exist in the archipelago.
Specifically, each of them will receive an allocation of 3,076 euros to invest in technological equipment (interactive whiteboards, tablets or laptops, among others) with which to reinforce the learning process of its residents, so that they can have the appropriate tools to carry out academic work, as well as improve their digital skills, key in current education.
The thirteen residences benefited from these aids, managed through the General Directorate of Administration of Centers, Schooling and Complementary Services, coordinated by David Crego, are distributed throughout the archipelago: four of them are located in Gran Canaria (La Ladera, Manuel Sosa, Santa María de Guía and Siete Palmas), another three in Tenerife (San Andrés, Pedro García Cabrera and Hermano Pedro) and La Palma (Jarra Canaria, Mirca-San José and San Miguel), and one in the islands of Lanzarote, Fuerteventura and La Gomera (Haría, Puerto del Rosario and San Sebastián de La Gomera, respectively).
These centers, which depend on the Ministry of Education, host more than six hundred Canarian students of all levels, including university students, and are supervised by tutors, who provide school support and academic guidance to reinforce the learning of resident students, as well as by the figure of the scholarship student or collaborator who, being of legal age, performs tutoring and guidance functions to the youngest residents in exchange for a subsidized stay.
The main objective of school residences in the Canary Islands is to guarantee equal opportunities in access to education, offering accommodation and support to those students who, for various geographical, family or personal reasons, may have difficulty attending school. They are spaces that respond to students who, during the school year, must spend the night away from home from Monday to Friday and, even, in some cases, on weekends, when the distance from their family home so requires.
These facilities not only serve students whose home is on another island or in remote rural areas, but also provide support to young people in vulnerable situations, whether due to economic difficulties, family coexistence problems or specific needs derived from a disability. In this way, school residences act as a key resource to avoid educational inequality and promote the integral development of students.
In addition to their main function as spaces for residence and academic support, these centers can also be used for cultural and recreational activities, always with due authorization and guaranteeing the correct functioning of their ordinary activity. This allows school residences to also be a meeting point for the educational community and an environment of personal and collective growth for the students who inhabit them.
Currently, Canarian school residences remain open from Monday to Thursday, with the exception of the centers of Mirca-San José (La Palma) and Pedro García Cabrera (Tenerife), with a different regime from the rest, since they also remain open on weekends.
This investment is part of the commitment of the area directed by Poli Suárez to the modernization and digitization of the educational system of the islands, with a commitment to digital inclusion and the improvement of resources available to students who are welcomed in Canarian school residences.
