The Government of the Canary Islands will open new classrooms for students aged two to three years starting in January in Lanzarote. Throughout the Canary Islands, there will be 29 new classrooms for these students, providing 522 places, according to the head of the Ministry of Education, Poli Suárez.
Of the total number of classrooms, 19 of the places (342 places) will become operational on January 8th, the first school day of 2024, while the remaining 10 (180 places) will do so just one week later, on January 15th.
For students in Playa Blanca, the classroom at the Infant and Primary Education Center (CEIP) will become operational on January 8th. On that day, three classrooms are scheduled to open in Fuerteventura, five in Gran Canaria, and ten in Tenerife.
January 15th
For the following week, starting on January 15th, the opening of another ten classrooms is planned: one in Fuerteventura, six in Gran Canaria, and three in Lanzarote. On the island of volcanoes, these are the classrooms at the CEIP Adolfo Tophan and Nieves Toledo in Arrecife, and Ajei in San Bartolomé.
In Fuerteventura and Gran Canaria, these will be the classrooms at the CEIP La Lajita in the municipality of Pájara, and at the CEIP Timplista José Antonio Ramos (Las Palmas de Gran Canaria), Profesor Rafael Gómez Santos (San Mateo), Montaña Los Vélez (Agüimes), Doctor Juan Espino Sánchez (Ingenio), Las Dunas and Camino de La Madera (both in San Bartolomé de Tirajana) in Gran Canaria.
In addition to all of these, there are also the two classrooms that became operational on December 11th in the municipalities of La Aldea de San Nicolás (Gran Canaria) and Tinajo, in the CEIP La Ladera and Guiguan, respectively, with a total of 36 places.
In summary, in the coming weeks, the number of new places opened in the 2023/2024 school year for the first cycle of Early Childhood Education (2-3 years) in the Canary Islands will increase to 558, distributed in 31 classrooms.
"Commitment fulfilled"
With the opening of these classrooms, the current Government of the Canary Islands fulfills the "commitment" it made upon arrival, when it found that it was materially impossible for the 1,196 places planned in 65 centers for this year by the previous Executive to become operational in September, as their works or supplies had not been tendered or awarded with sufficient anticipation.
Faced with this situation, the Ministry of Education, Vocational Training, Physical Activity and Sports, led by Poli Suárez, approved allocating four million euros so that, until the opening of their reference centers (which is happening now), children born in 2021 and enrolled in the first cycle of Early Childhood Education in public centers of the Autonomous Community whose works had not yet been completed could be schooled.
To this end, it reached an agreement with the island's infant schools, both municipal public and private, to which the affected students were temporarily and extraordinarily referred, with the expectation that they would gradually occupy their places as the works were completed.
With this measure, a solution was found for these children for the current year. "This is a temporary and extraordinary situation to avoid serious damage to families caused by the previous Government of the Canary Islands," said Poli Suárez at the time, who now expresses his satisfaction that these students can finally occupy their regional public places.
"We continue working to launch all the classrooms for two to three year olds," said the Minister, who anticipates that after the opening in January of these 29 classrooms, which will later be joined by another six in El Hierro, Gran Canaria and Tenerife, "that strategy for the launch of the new 2-3 classrooms for the 2024-2025 academic year is already underway, because it was and is a commitment of the Ministry and the Government of the Canary Islands."
