Increasing educational investment is not just a matter of justice or political commitment, it is above all a legal mandate. A mandate that was born inspired by the Social, Political and Economic Pact for Education in the Canary Islands that led to the approval of the Canary Islands Education Law in 2014, and that arose from participation and consensus, which established a roadmap for the improvement of the education system of the islands. We cannot forget that the Law is approved and inspired through a Popular Legislative Initiative, which incorporates an even greater dose of democracy and participation.
In the preamble of the Law, it already affirms the indispensable nature of increasing educational investment to reach, as a minimum, 5% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), as outlined in Article 72.3, as an essential condition to guarantee the right to a quality education throughout the Archipelago. The Law itself establishes this percentage as an objective to ensure that the education system has the necessary resources to respond to the needs of students, teachers, and centers, as well as to reduce the social and territorial inequalities that exist between the islands.
Reaching 5% would allow us to modernize infrastructure, much of which is obsolete, and which, for example, in the face of a high-temperature episode like the one we have experienced, leads us to suspend classes for not being even minimally adapted.
That greater investment would make it possible to increase teaching staff, reduce student-classroom ratios, increasing more individualized attention, and improve inclusion, educational compensation, and support programs for students with special educational support needs. Increasing investment as contemplated in the Law would have a direct impact on equal opportunities with an expansion in the scholarship policy, a considerable increase in access to Early Childhood Education from 0 to 3 years, or the promotion of the digital transformation of schools.
Complying with the Canary Islands Education Law means meeting the present and future challenges of this land, it means betting on a better-educated citizenry with the capacity to improve and transform our environment, because that educational investment must be a firm institutional commitment that should aspire to greater progress and social justice.
On September 27th, the School Council of the Canary Islands sent the parliamentary groups a resolution in which they once again demand "the immediate fulfillment of the legal obligation to allocate, in the 2026 Budgets, at least 5% of the Archipelago's GDP to education and to respect this in a sustained manner."
Regarding that resolution from the School Council of the Canary Islands, I based my intervention on the government oversight session of last Tuesday the 28th, trying in vain to get the Minister of Education to state in Parliament his commitment, and that of the entire Executive, to compliance with the Law.
I say in vain because after so much beating around the bush, he didn't provide any information regarding how it will be reflected in the Budgets that are about to enter the Regional Chamber.
I honestly don't believe that increasing investment and reaching that 5% of the Gross Domestic Product is among their objectives, especially after listening to President Fernando Clavijo's pronouncements some time ago, when he referred to the Canary Islands Education Law as only having an orientative character.
The Law is mandatory and not advisory. These statements are yet another sign of a complete lack of commitment to the future of the Canary Islands, because that future depends on education with better investment, or else that future will vanish. The two previous budget years, with a progressive departure from that investment objective, clearly speak to the roadmap of this Government of the Canary Islands.
Education can only be seen as a fundamental investment in the social, economic, and cultural progress of the islands, and we certainly need it.
Let us move away from failure to approach a land of opportunity through the most transformative tool we have at our disposal: a quality, equitable, and well-funded education.
