The island director of Education, Mario Pérez, has pointed out that they have held a meeting with the FP teachers of Zonzamas and have "asked for an effort", since it is going to be very "difficult to place the basic FP students" in another center, which is what these teachers were demanding. According to Pérez, this "difficulty" comes because "the specialties of hospitality and cooking and automotive" need facilities that are not available in other centers in Lanzarote. On the other hand, Pérez has denied that secondary education groups are maintained, assuring that "all ESO and Baccalaureate students will move to the Mercedes Medina institute in September".
In statements for Radio Lanzarote-Onda Cero, the island director of Education has explained that he met with the FP teachers of Zonzamas together with the Deputy Minister of Education and Universities of the Government of the Canary Islands, the general director of FP and the educational inspector of Lanzarote. "In that meeting we expressed our firm conviction of having an integrated FP center, because we were also going to fight, despite all the difficulties we have had, to ensure that it had the same conditions as any integrated center in the Canary Islands," he said.
In this regard, it should be remembered that this is precisely what the FP teachers have been denouncing, who question that Zonzamas will be the only integrated Vocational Training center in the Canary Islands that also maintains Basic FP. According to the teachers, these students "are minors who require specific attention", which would "negatively affect the open nature of an integrated center, making it necessary to control the entry and exit of these students". That is why Mario Pérez has assured that they have offered them "the possibility of having a specific counselor for these students and that, in addition, the FP teaching staff would be dedicated solely and exclusively to integrated FP, that is, that they would not be on guard duty and that they would not be in direct care of these basic FP students". However, he has confirmed that "they have to teach them".
"We can't tell the students that we're not going to teach them"
Regarding the number of these students, the director of Education in Lanzarote has pointed out that those who remain "transitorily" in the Zonzamas "are going to be two groups of first year: one of 20 students in a basic FP of hospitality and cooking, and another of another 20 students in another basic FP of automotive". "We can't tell them to stay at home, we can't tell them that we're not going to teach them, we can't tell them that we don't have facilities when we actually have them," Perez said, who added that the decision "can't go against the right that the students of Lanzarote have, in this case a few students, but as important as the rest, to have a quality education". Thus, he stressed that "the General Directorate of FP is making and will continue to make the maximum efforts to have facilities" of the required level "in another center on the island".
Pérez has pointed out that the process of converting the Zonzamas institute into an Integrated Vocational Training Center (CFPI), "if it has had several disagreements, it has closed with considerable consensus", since "the parents and students of Zonzamas, and the educational communities of Los Geranios and Mercedes Medina have applauded the line of consensus that has been had throughout this process".
He has also explained that several things have been achieved although "with difficulties, with some delay, with some inconvenience, which are logical when there is some reformulation in the educational areas of Lanzarote". "We are finally going to have a secondary school in the area of Mercedes Medina and Los Geranios," he added. Likewise, regarding the integrated FP center, he assured that they are going to continue working, "never losing sight of the fact that the objective is that our students are in the best possible conditions and that is why we have created an integrated FP center in Lanzarote, which did not exist and which exists in all the islands of the Canary Islands except in Lanzarote".
"And it is true that this center had to be done a lot of years ago, probably 6, 7, 8 or 9, but we are going to try to make decisions", although there are some "that generate discomfort and some resistance to change, but the firm conviction of the Ministry is to continue working in that line", stressed the director of Education.
