Education in the Canary Islands is a failure, and the excessive interest in the project to "introduce esports in the classrooms" is nothing more than a smokescreen to hide the lack of attention the Government of the Canary Islands pays to this area. With that premise, the general secretary of the Canarian socialists has delivered his latest opinion article, partially highlighting some aspects of education on the islands and, of course, without mentioning a single one of the improvements to the education system in recent years, which are many. But let's go step by step.
Ángel Víctor Torres openly accuses us of prioritizing the esports project over the rest of education and of creating it to hide supposed embarrassments. Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, the plan was to complete and present the project in September, but a simple survey of the centers, so they could express whether they would be interested in participating in this new educational project that was being designed, was enough for the entire opposition to lash out against it. Without having presented it, without it even being finalized. Of course, this Government has not put the focus on that project. Apart from the presentation press conference that we brought forward at the end of July, to give all the information requested by the other parties and society in general, few will have heard statements from this counselor or the Ministry team in this regard, and those that have occurred are at the direct request of the media.
And this is because it is just one more of the dozens of innovation projects that the Ministry promotes each year and not a 'star project' or an absolute priority. We consider it necessary to educate our young people in the responsible use of video games and we have planned it in extracurricular hours, voluntarily, with the participation of families and a duration of three months, and we defend it as we defend the rest of the projects promoted by this Ministry. Therefore, if someone has put the focus on it or considers it a priority to talk about it and not the rest of education, it is not us.
The secretary of the socialists refers to the past Debate on Nationality and, however, ignores everything that was explained there about the evolution of the education system. He does not say in his article that this Legislature has already approved 40 million euros for the technological modernization of the centers, that the historic and fair demand of the teaching staff has been approved to implement the six-year pay increment model and equalize their conditions with the rest of the teachers in the State, in addition to the supplements for tutoring and bilingualism, or that the program for the free use of textbooks has been extended to all primary, secondary, high school and vocational training, when at the beginning of the mandate it barely covered first and second grade of primary school and the great effort was being made by the parents' associations. Nor does he mention the improvements in scholarships for university students, advancing payments, reaching more families, lowering fees and recovering university funding. And, of course, he forgets the push to make us a bilingual community, to vocational training, to educational infrastructures (with 9 centers already started), he forgets the creation of a protocol for the care of trans students, which has been very well received in the centers, or the implementation of the Equality Plan in the Archipelago.
This is just to give a few examples. Instead, what he does is describe education in the Canary Islands as "painful", ignoring the past legislature and the responsibility of his own political formation in aspects such as the fact that my predecessor in office was also the general secretary of the Canarian socialists. There is much to be done in education, but if the education system has done anything in these years, it is to improve in practically all aspects; improvements to which, in the years of crisis and inaction of the administration, families and teachers undoubtedly contributed.
So if it is painful at present, a statement that we do not share at all, we should remind him of what the starting point was. For example, to justify his criticism, Ángel Víctor Torres uses the most improvable aspects in the current education system. He dedicates a good part of his text to Early Childhood Education from 0 to 3 years, pointing out that the Canary Islands is far behind other autonomous communities in its coverage.
Today, there are about thirty more authorized nursery schools than at the beginning of the Legislature and we obtained 3 million euros from the State. And, since he refers to other autonomous communities, perhaps he did not read the chronicles of the last Sectoral Conference on Education, in which all of them, including those governed by the socialist party, agreed in pointing out that the State must regulate that stage conveniently and finance it if it declares it compulsory. Let us not forget that in the LOE, a law approved by a socialist Government, early childhood education from 3 to 6 years was established as free, while up to 3 years it was configured as non-free, nor compulsory. This is what has led to the current situation in which several communities that promoted it have been forced to cut their benefits or, at least, demand state aid to maintain it, including the socialist Andalusian community. He would do better to join the autonomous claims against the State Government, as the interlocutor he pretends to be.
He also defines as painful the situation of the teaching staff and mentions a deficit of teachers in the Canarian education system. We have already talked about the pay improvement that we have implemented through the six-year pay increment model. But the fact is that today there are 700 more teachers in our education system than at the time when the socialists were running it.
He talks about a lack of attention to diversity due to a lack of specialized teachers. Only last year, we reinforced this attention with more than 270 teachers in infant and primary education, through the Impulsa program (which, by the way, does involve a millionaire investment, not like the three months of the voluntary project on video games), we launched the Tránsito program, with which the adaptation of more than 2,500 students was improved in their transition from Primary to Secondary, we reinforced the guidance and psycho-pedagogical evaluation teams with more specialists in Hearing and Language, we opened fourteen new Enclave classrooms, 16 more next year, we incorporated occupational therapists to the Special Education Centers, which did not have this figure, and we incorporated 36 educators and social educators to the education system, as a new resource also for the attention to diversity and school absenteeism, all of which are highly demanded by the educational community. More than three hundred more people to attend to diversity in a single course.
And, finally, the greatest pearl of the socialist discourse refers to what is established by the Canarian law in relation to the fact that in the year 2022 5% of GDP must be allocated to education. Exactly, the Law establishes that the budget for this area must be progressively increased to reach the objective. Our first year of Legislature, the increase was 16 million euros, the second was 42 million euros and, the third, 100.4 million, in clear progression, without counting the extraordinary credits. However, the general secretary of the Canarian socialists describes the financing of education in the Canary Islands as shameful, again omitting how the socialist party managed this aspect. The Law came into force in September 2014, already with that mandate of progressive increase. That year, the budget for education was 1,498,104,842 euros. Just two months later, the general secretary of the Canarian socialists, at the head of the Ministry of Education, presented a lower budget for 2015, allocating 1,497,337,702 euros to education. However, now that we are increasing the education budget progressively, for the socialists it is a shame.
I will not be the one to ignore all the work that remains to be done in Education, since I dedicate myself to it every day, and it is obvious that aspects such as Education from 0 to 3 years or financing are aspects to be improved. And we also work on that every day where it corresponds and trying to reach agreements with whoever is necessary to make our education system progress, as with the PP Government previously and the PSOE Government at present for the adequate regulation of the first cycle of infant education or in the unquestionable request to use the almost 600 million euros of surplus from the Canary Islands. It is time to fight for that 5% of education funding at the state level that made the PSOE break the negotiation of the Pact for Education, as it is to modify the much criticized LOMCE, and not the Canarian Law that came out of consensus and a popular initiative. But, of course, what we do not do is create screens or controversies on purpose to avoid talking about what we must improve, nor do we dedicate ourselves to describing previous decisions that contribute to the current situation as painful or shameful. We look ahead in search of the best way to strengthen our education. And all this, Mr. Torres, listening to the Educational Community, which is something in which the Socialist Party does not give us lessons.
*Soledad Monzón is Minister of Education and Universities of the Government of the Canary Islands.