These days we have read a testimony that hurts. A Canary Islander mother, Astrid, is forced to leave her job because no one can look after her two autistic children between the end of school lunch and the start of the after-school care service. A gap in time. A simple time slot. That was all it took for a family to fall apart.
And the most devastating thing is not that this situation occurs: it is that it occurs every day, in every corner of the Canary Islands, without the Government assuming the urgency it demands
Because behind every headline there is a life. And behind every life, a right that is violated
Work-life balance in the Canary Islands is a mirage for too many families
For many families with children with special educational needs, work-life balance is a dream that shatters as soon as the day begins. There is a lack of support staff. There is a lack of assistants. There is a lack of specialized professional profiles. There is a lack of covered hours. There is a lack of coordination between services.
And, above all, there is a lack of political will to put the most vulnerable children at the center
When a mother is forced to give up her job because there is no one to accompany her child within the educational system itself, we are not facing a domestic problem: we are facing an institutional failure.
There is no other possible word.
Mothers holding up the unsustainable
Many mothers I know tell me with the same mix of exhaustion and dignity: they've had to put their lives on hold. They've seen their professional careers interrupted, given up opportunities, changed impossible shifts, or simply stopped working because the system doesn't measure up.
They live with their dreams broken by daily uncertainty: Who will be with my child? How do I organize tomorrow? What will happen if something goes wrong?
We are not talking about isolated cases.
We are talking about a structural reality that falls, once again, on the shoulders of families, especially women, while the government of Coalición Canaria and the Popular Party allow themselves the luxury of postponing solutions until 2026.
To say that everything will be solved in 2026 is to have understood nothing
The official response is known: "With the new contract, this problem will be resolved in September 2026."
Does anyone really consider it reasonable for a family to wait two years for their child to receive the support they need?
Two years without job stability?
Two years improvising care?
Two years paying consequences they shouldn't have to pay?
Look, vital emergencies do not allow for administrative extensions.
Childhood cannot wait for paperwork to arrive on time.
Real inclusion is not rhetoric: it is a budgetary commitment
Resources allocated to special education are not a luxury. They are not an add-on. They are not something that can be "adjusted" as needed.
They are rights.
They are lives.
They are opportunities that do not return.
When a child cannot be in the dining hall because there aren't enough staff, they lose more than just supervision: they lose socialization, they lose autonomy, they lose equality. They lose their full childhood.And when a family is left alone, it also loses something irreparable: trust in institutionsA government that arrives late arrives badly
Canary Islands needs an educational policy that is not limited to reacting when the problem has already become unbearable. It needs planning, investment, trained personnel, and a genuine listening to families, who have been warning for years about shortcomings that are now exploding everywhere.
We cannot continue asking for patience from those who have already lost everything.
We cannot continue asking for understanding from those who survive each week as best they can.
We can't keep saying "it will come later" while children grow up waiting.
Families don't want heroics. They want rights.
Astrid didn't ask for privileges.
She asked for something as basic as being able to work while her children are at school.
She asked for a dignified work-life balance.
She asked for the school to fulfill its role.
What we ask today is that the Canary Islands Government fulfill its own.
Not in two years. Today.
Because the true measure of a government is not in its speeches or announced contracts, but in its capacity to care for those who need it mostAnd right now, those who need it most are the boys and girls who cannot wait until 2026 for what is already theirs to be guaranteed: the right to an inclusive, complete, and dignified education.
