"In the first meeting we have with both the affected directors and the Minister herself with a group of teachers from Zonzamas, it is recognized that in terms of timing, that decision could have been made a long time ago. That is true and we have acknowledged it." This is how the Island Director of Education, Mario Pérez, admitted that the changes that will affect 8 schools in Arrecife next year, and which the educational communities have criticized for "lack of foresight," could have been decided earlier. Education has held meetings with teachers and parents of the schools and, according to Pérez, has agreed to some proposals to modify these changes.
Pérez insists that the launch of an integrated vocational training center at the current IES Zonzamas, which is what motivates these adjustments in eight schools and institutes in the capital, is a "transcendental issue." "It is a necessary decision that no one disputes, it should have been made a long time ago and we have made it, what we have tried is to ensure that this decision has as few drawbacks as possible," he says.
Indeed, the need for the measure has not been questioned from the different centers, but they do question the ways in which the Ministry's decision was made, also denouncing that they were informed just one week before the start of enrollment. According to Pérez, these enrollments will not begin until June and for the moment only pre-enrollments are being carried out for students who want to change schools. Meanwhile, meetings with the centers continue to take place.
Centers and parents "delighted"
Pérez, although he concedes that "there are always those who are more happy or less happy," emphasizes that some centers are "delighted" with these changes. In the case of some of them, he states that the complaints they have been making "do not conform to the reality" that Education knows. In this regard, he alludes to Nieves Toledo, whose AMPA sent a statement criticizing that students now have the IES Arrecife as their reference institute, emphasizing that this center was the "most distant." The island director, however, states that Education promoted a visit by parents to that institute and that they were "very pleased with the facilities, the educational project and being located in a center like IES Arrecife." He does admit, however, that these students will be the only ones who will have to be "transported" to the center by bus, something that, he points out, has been "managed" to avoid in other cases.
"It is true that it is the only center that will continue to be transported, the only one. Argana, Los Geranios, Mercedes Medina, Titerroy will not be, and the only center that will be transported and instead of going to Zonzamas will go to Arrecife is Nieves Toledo. That is radically true. But it is also true that when a decision of this type is made, we try to make it a decision that seeks the general good of the community," says Pérez.
He says that the parents of the Los Geranios school are also "very pleased," as they will have to absorb the children from Infant and Primary who are currently studying at Mercedes Medina, since that school will begin to teach Secondary and Baccalaureate. A representative of the school board of Mercedes Medina had conveyed to La Voz her concern about these modifications, about the suitability of the school's infrastructure for these changes, that it was not done gradually as the children move up a grade, or about the "ratios" of students in Los Geranios, which she believes will be "a show."
Mario Pérez has assured that the parents of Mercedes Medina held a vote and "63% of the parents who voted, voted in favor of a process of converting the CEIP into IES." "It is transcendental. It is about the students who for more than 15 years have been displaced from the Altavista area to that part of Arrecife, towards Zonzamas or San Francisco Javier, those students from this year will not be transported, they will stay in a center that will be an institute and will be next to their homes," he defended.
Some changes after the "proposals" of the centers
Although he does not allude to complaints or discomfort, the island director does admit that they have received "proposals." This is the case of the parents of Mercedes Medina, who he points out have conveyed their desire to "extend" the process. "What the parents have decided is that (next year) there will be 1st and 2nd year of ESO and that Infant will move to Los Geranios and that this will be a gradual process, which is what the parents have proposed. We said that only the children of 3 and 4 years old should leave, but they have proposed that the entire infant education should leave and we see no problem with that," he said. This contrasts, however, with the explanation given on April 1 by the representative of the school board, who pointed out that Education informed the director of the center that she should host "three first-year classes and one second-year class" of ESO a week before enrollment opened. "And fend for yourself," she added.
Changes have also been proposed in the case of Zonzamas. The teachers of this institute lamented in a statement that "at no time was the educational community" of the center consulted about the changes that were planned to be made. "Confusion and misinformation has been fostered, seeking confrontation between the educational communities themselves, not seeking consensus or the general interest," they pointed out. In this regard, Mario Pérez has stated that he has met twice with the teachers of Zonzamas and that Education also had a meeting with its director and another with the educational community, all to "try to explain and minimize the effect" that the decision could have.
According to him, in those meetings they told him that they wanted the entire educational community "to leave the center," that is, that "all the teachers" should move to Mercedes Medina, which will host the students of Zonzamas when it becomes an institute. "No problem, but we are going to try to do it in an orderly way," Pérez said in this regard. "In the following academic year there will be a series of teachers who will already move to Mercedes Medina because they have students to teach, and there will be teachers who will gradually move as there are students."
In this sense, Pérez has stressed that "teachers go to the centers where there are students and not the other way around." "Here the priority is the boys and girls," emphasizes the island director of Education. Mario Pérez insists that from the ministry they are "committed" to ensuring that the decision "generates as few problems as possible" and states that "for that reason" these meetings are being held. From the communities, however, they believe that these meetings should have been held earlier. The teachers of Zonzamas already lamented in this sense that "time was not given to the educational communities to reflect and agree on a school reorganization of this magnitude."
