The families of students with specific educational support needs in Lanzarote have denounced "the collapse" of a system that begins "another school year without guaranteeing the necessary assistants, accumulates delays in psychopedagogical assessments and presents serious deficiencies in school transport".
Faced with this situation, they gathered this Tuesday, October 13, at 10:00 a.m., in front of the Insular Directorate of Education, under the slogan "Inclusion is not used. Inclusion is guaranteed".
The mobilization will be attended by the associations Sentirte and Lanzarotea and the Canary Islands Platform for Inclusive Education. "We are starting the school year again demanding resources that our children are entitled to and that the Administration has the legal obligation to guarantee according to their educational needs. Families continue to cover deficiencies that directly affect their education and well-being," they have indicated.
The families have warned that the cases known in recent weeks through the media and social networks "are just a sample of a broader reality".
Thus, they have pointed out "that there are students with accredited support needs who continue to wait for an assistant, as well as minors with medical needs, including epilepsy, who require adequate attention to attend class safely".
Lack of staff for
One of the main reasons for concern for these families is "the lack of staff for the assessments of the TGD team, the educational and psychopedagogical guidance team specialized in pervasive developmental disorders, which intervenes in the assessment of NEAE students in coordination with the centers' guidance teams".
According to the families' complaints, this attention falls on a single professional in Lanzarote. They add that last year "a newly incorporated professional had to assume that responsibility without the necessary support or reinforcements to respond to the island's demand".
Families have indicated that these assessments are fundamental for determining the adaptations, support, and, when appropriate, the schooling modality for students. "There are boys and girls who, if this situation continues, will finish Primary without having received a single assessment from the TGD team that they are waiting for," they have warned. In this regard, they have pointed out that "an entire educational stage pending a response has consequences that cannot be repaired with a promise," they alert.
Families also convey "the overload of the orientation teams." They consider that the greater capacity to detect students' needs must be accompanied by an increase in professionals and resources that allows them to be addressed in a timely manner. "Detecting a need and leaving it on a waiting list for years means keeping students, their families, and their teachers without the response they need," they state.
To these deficiencies are added the problems with school transportation for students in enclave classrooms. Families report cases of minors who have been assigned a school without being provided with a transportation spot, forcing their households to bear the round-trip travel costs and reorganize their work and family lives.
Likewise, they report situations of students arriving half an hour late due to excessively long routes and insufficient means. "Our sons and daughters are losing class time due to a service that should guarantee their punctual arrival. The lack of resources is, in practice, cutting into their right to education," they maintain.
The demand also includes the Tahíche special education school, whose facilities, they denounce, remain insufficient. Families demand a response that considers both the improvement of spaces and a sufficient, specialized, and reinforced staff, with coverage for absences and availability from the beginning of the school year.
"Our sons and daughters need adequate spaces and professionals who can attend to them with the time and dedication they require. Any solution for the center must guarantee both," they emphasize.
Families also question the distance between institutional discourses on inclusion and the situation in classrooms. "On this island, it seems there is money for everything except what is important. We hear promises and discourses about inclusion while we continue to wait for the most basic resources. Inclusion must be demonstrated every day in educational centers," they state.
They denounce the lack of response from the Insular Directorate in Lanzarote
Finally, they denounce "the lack of listening and responses from the Insular Directorate of Education." "We are met with a wall. We manage to get more dialogue outside of Lanzarote than on the island itself," they affirm.
Therefore, they request that the insular director of Education, Carmen Pellón, attend to the families and specify the deadlines for incorporating the pending assistants, reinforcing the TGD team and educational guidance, resolving transportation problems, and guaranteeing the facilities and personnel that the special education school in Tahíche needs.
"Our sons and daughters are growing now and their education is happening now. We need answers, deadlines, and resources. Inclusion is guaranteed, and without resources, there are no rights," they concluded.
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