The mayor of Yaiza recalls that “there are still missing teachers at the beginning of the school year and there is no response to the municipal request for safe transportation for high school students.” The City Council denies the reduction of Local Police personnel during school entry and exit times.
“Podemos is misguided in Yaiza while governing in the Canary Islands and does not help solve education problems.” This is how the mayor of Yaiza, Óscar Noda, responded to councilor Ramiro Muñoz, who this Monday denounced that "crowds" are occurring at the doors of the municipality's educational centers and denounced that police forces had been reduced to control entrances and exits.
In addition to denying the reduction of agents, Noda has invited Podemos "to help solve the problems derived from the lack of foresight at the beginning of this school year, since it is one of the political formations that supports the Canarian government presided over by the socialist Ángel Víctor Torres, apart from addressing the structural problems that education in the Islands drags along, as a competent Institution in the matter”.
In this regard, the southern mayor emphasizes that “in Yaiza some teachers are still missing and as of today (September 22) the Government of the Canary Islands has not even responded to our request to suspend face-to-face classes for high school until the Cabildo de Lanzarote puts into operation the reinforcement of the regular bus line and a stop in the IES Yaiza parking lot to guarantee the safety of the students”.
In addition, the City Council "categorically denies that it has reduced the number of Local Police officers during student entry and exit times", as publicly stated in a press release by the councilor of Lanzarote en Pie – Sí Podemos, Ramiro Muñoz. “The statements of the Podemos spokesperson in Yaiza are at least misguided because, despite the police deficit we have in the municipality, we have reinforced the morning shift to attend to the entry and exit hours of the centers with the invaluable support of Civil Protection volunteers, who collaborate in schools and have collaborated like no one else in social care during the pandemic."
"It is logical that on the first day of classes, when contingency plans against covid-19 began to roll out, we had more Civil Protection volunteers”, added the mayor, referring to Muñoz's criticism of that reduction in personnel compared to the first day.
The mayor of Yaiza also reminds Podemos that “social distancing, such as the use of masks or frequent hand washing, is an individual responsibility of the citizen”, and that the Yaiza City Council “has launched, not one, but several citizen awareness campaigns to promote collaboration in this regard”.
Óscar Noda also highlights “the coordinated work between the management bodies of the schools and the IES, teachers and the City Council to adapt the buildings to the contingency plans in record time, including the IES Yaiza building, whose maintenance is the responsibility of Education, despite how late the instructions arrived from the Government of the Canary Islands and the constant changes communicated to the centers". "We knew at the last minute the entry and exit time of the IES, and that conditions the contingency and security plan of any center”, he questioned.
The mayor maintains that “the directors of the centers can attest to the set of actions carried out in each of them and the security device agreed for the schools”. Óscar Noda finally reiterates his willingness and that of the City Council “to help the school year develop in the best possible way within the exceptional circumstances we all live in. From Podemos we expect them to urge their government partners, especially the Socialist Party, to attend to education in the Canary Islands as it deserves".
Among other things, he recalled that "the Yaiza City Council, for example, promoted the project and ceded the land for the construction of the CEO Playa Blanca, which will alleviate the student population currently at the CEIP Playa Blanca."
