Classes suspended in the Canary Islands on Wednesday and Friday due to high temperatures

The Government of the Canary Islands has suspended classes in non-university education centers on Wednesday and Friday - Thursday is a holiday - due to the high temperatures hitting the Canary archipelago.

The Minister of Education, Poli Suárez, who justified the measure "out of responsibility", after demands from several centers where fainting and heat stroke episodes have been reported, has announced that they will immediately begin to develop a protocol to act in future episodes of high temperatures.

The idea is to have this protocol in a matter of days or weeks, the Minister said in statements to the media.

Decision that has been announced on a day in which the State Meteorological Agency (Aemet) has announced that maximum temperatures will again exceed 34 degrees Celsius this Tuesday, and minimum temperatures will barely drop below 24 degrees.

The haze has accompanied the high temperatures these days, and in municipalities of the islands of Lanzarote, Fuerteventura, Gran Canaria, Tenerife and La Gomera, warnings have been issued for health risks due to high temperatures.

The Minister of Education, Vocational Training, Physical Activity and Sports, Poli Suárez, said this Tuesday that the decision to suspend classes has also been adopted taking into account the maximum alert for forest fire risk in El Hierro, La Gomera, La Palma, Tenerife and Gran Canaria.

Poli Suárez has stated that the situation is "unsustainable" in many schools in the Canary Islands, and has indicated that he has messages and calls from center directors and heads of parents' associations, as well as unions, with whom he has also spoken before making the decision.

He has insisted on the need to have an action protocol for future situations of high temperatures, and given the possibility of giving classes remotely, he has stated that it is currently "complicated".

The Minister has also spoken about educational infrastructures, and has reiterated that there has been a paralysis in their renovation, so that most do not meet the conditions to tackle situations of high temperatures.

In two months "we cannot solve" the problem of abandonment of "many legislatures", added the Minister, who added that there are many barracks, which came to cover needs such as extensions of centers but now have "many years and are in a deplorable state".

Poli Suárez has raised the need for the central and regional administrations, in collaboration with the island councils and municipalities, to mark the priorities in educational infrastructures.