Primero Teguise demands the resignation of the insular director of Education in Lanzarote, Carmen Pellón, due to what it considers a "lack of planning and capacity to respond to some of the main problems" affecting the educational centers of Lanzarote and La Graciosa.
The insularist party considers it "especially worrying that problems known for years, such as high temperatures in classrooms, overcrowding in certain centers, or the need for new educational infrastructure, continue to be faced when they have already become emergencies."
“Carmen Pellón has been insular director for three years and we believe she has had enough time to perfectly understand the educational needs of Lanzarote. The problem is not that a heatwave appears, because obviously that does not depend on her; the problem is knowing that the heat will arrive, understanding the conditions of our schools, and waiting for families and AMPAs to raise their voices again,” states Jonás Álvarez, councilor and spokesperson for Primero Teguise.
From PTG they recall that the adaptation of educational centers to high temperatures "is not a new problem." The Canary Islands Government itself has a specific protocol for these episodes and has implemented measures to monitor the thermal conditions of the centers. However, families in Lanzarote continue to report a lack of air conditioning and shaded areas in various educational facilities.
“It seems we have discovered in September 2026 that it is hot in Lanzarote. If the AMPAs are capable of detecting the problem, demanding solutions, and mobilizing, perhaps we should ask ourselves what the purpose of an Insular Directorate is if it always comes after the families,” criticizes Álvarez.
Primero Teguise also recalls that, in September 2023, during a visit by Carmen Pellón herself to the CEOs of the municipality of Teguise, the improvement of classroom ventilation was already announced among the planned actions.
“Three years have passed since there was public talk of improving ventilation. We don't know how many summers it takes to go from 'we are working on it' to actually working on it,” the spokesperson ironically states.
The situation of the Nuestra Señora de los Volcanes Special Education Center, in Tahíche, is another example for Primero Teguise of this lack of foresight. As families have publicly denounced, the center has gone from approximately 50 students to nearly 114 in a decade, remaining in practically the same space and resorting to modules to try to absorb the growth.
“Going from 50 to more than a hundred students doesn't happen overnight. Families have been warning for years. When you know how enrollment is growing, you know the special needs of these students, and yet you reach a situation of saturation, we can no longer talk about an unforeseen event. We are talking about planning, or rather, about a lack of it,” states Álvarez.
PTG also considers the situation of the future CEO of Costa Teguise to be worrying. The town continues to await an educational infrastructure that has been demanded for years. Although there is a project and the Ministry intends to process its tender, its execution continues to depend on sufficient credit being available to cover the investment.
“After so many years of waiting, announcing that we are going to tender but then having to check if we have the money to award it is a rather creative way of understanding what it means to have a priority,” says Álvarez.
Primero Teguise considers that the function of an Insular Directorate "cannot be limited to relaying announcements from the Ministry, but must also serve to detect the specific needs of Lanzarote, defend them, and demand the necessary resources from the regional government."
“We expected the insular director to be the voice of Lanzarote before the Ministry of Education and not simply the voice of the Ministry in Lanzarote. And if to obtain investments she has to demand from her own government or from her party colleague Poli Suárez, she will have to do it. That is why she represents the education of this island,” states the PTG spokesperson.
The party considers that, during these three years, "there has been sufficient time to establish priorities, demand funding, and offer concrete timelines for some of the island's main educational needs."
Therefore, Primero Teguise calls for the resignation of Carmen Pellón as insular director of Education and demands that whoever occupies that responsibility establish from the outset a public roadmap for the educational infrastructures of Lanzarote and La Graciosa.
“We are not asking for an island director to personally solve all the problems of education in Lanzarote. We are asking precisely for what corresponds to a political position: to anticipate, manage, and, when Lanzarote needs something, to demand it, even if she has to do it in front of colleagues from her own party,” concludes Jonás Álvarez.
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