The union Docentes de Canarias INSUCAN has denounced the treatment given to the Ministry of Education of the Government of the Canary Islands to the teachers of CEO Ignacio Aldecoa of La Graciosa, who face deficiencies and unequal situations compared to the rest of the guild of the islands and of Lanzarote.
Juan Serafín Marrero, vice-coordinator of Teachers of Canarias INSUCAN, states in an interview with La Voz that the problem lies in interim teachers and in the current process of requesting centers that will take place in the next month of May. "What happens is that the application where the request is made has hidden in the municipality of Teguise Caleta de Sebo and, therefore, the CEO Ignacio Aldecoa," he explains.
This situation causes many of the teachers who request the petition of the schools do not know that they can be assigned the school of La Graciosa, which leads many of them to make claims to request a relocation to another center, since for reasons of family conciliation they cannot travel to the eighth island.
And it is that of the fourteen teachers that the CEO Ignacio Aldecoa has, only two of them live in La Graciosa. The rest must travel by boat daily to the island, which represents a waste of time and money, since it is the teachers themselves who must pay for their tickets to travel from their own salary. "I have been intensely demanding for two years that their transport be paid so that they earn the same salary as a teacher in Lanzarote because they lose annually between 1,500 and 1,800 euros", Marrero points out.
In this regard, it asks for some solution, such as "reaching an agreement with the shipping companies and that the teacher signs when going to travel on the ship and is paid per teacher".
Furthermore, he points out that the only measure they have achieved is that of the protocol for coastal phenomena, which states that upon a certain wave warning, the teacher should not go to the pier and wait for hours to see if the ferry departs or not, but rather will be able to give telematics classes.
Likewise, he criticizes that in the selective processes application "the island of La Graciosa appears empty, when the island, the town of Caleta de Sebo, and then the CEO Ignacio Aldecoa should appear". "That would avoid mistakes and problems at the beginning of the course because you always start with a deficit, claims arise, personnel have to be relocated and other personnel appointed, and all that takes more than a month to regularize", he continues.
A "reward" for teachers in exchange for four years in La Graciosa
To solve this problem faced by the school in La Graciosa, the union looks favorably on the incorporation of a "reward" for teaching for four consecutive years on the eighth island to incentivize teachers, especially young ones, to want to move and teach. "We are looking for someone from Lanzarote who doesn't mind moving and who has as an incentive that after four years they jump to block one of the lists," they propose.
This, according to Marrero, would achieve "a stability for the educational community that would help to the improvement of the results".
On the other hand, the union denounces that "there is a contradiction in the regulations because in an annex it says that Ignacio Aldecoa will not be awarded ex officio if you do not request it, but the computer program assigns it to you if you apply for the municipality of Teguise". "In the end, the teaching staff arrives reluctantly when an incentive could be sought to reward the sacrifice of going four years to La Graciosa", it assures.
However, she criticizes that from the administrations they do not respond before the proposals to solve this problem. "We cannot fill our mouths in Parliament talking about the eighth island and then do nothing for it... the director has told me that they have problems even for repairs of the center and they tell her "you look for someone to do it and send us the bill", something that is not within her management's competence", she continues.
From the union, they have made known on several occasions to the public administration of the "invisibility" that the eighth island is suffering in this area. Furthermore, it has advanced that next week they will hold a meeting with the Minister of Education of the Cabildo of Lanzarote, Ascensión Toledo, and will try to speak also with the minister of the same area of the Canarian Government, Poli Suárez, and President Clavijo at the end of the month.
