Compiled with the help of artificial intelligence, based on Spanish-language information. Source below the article.
The STEC-IC union has called for resignations at the Canary Islands Education Ministry over the state of educational infrastructure. It has gone to the Labour and Social Security Inspectorate to demand an investigation into the administration’s compliance with its preventive obligations amid high temperatures.
Union names those it holds responsible
STEC-IC points the finger at the education minister, Poli Suárez, and the director general of Infrastructure and Equipment, Iván González Carro. The union stresses that it has spent years denouncing the state of the Canary Islands’ educational infrastructure.
A catalogue of failings
“We are no longer talking about an isolated incident, an exceptional heatwave or one specific school,” it says. “We are talking about leaks, damp, unusable classrooms, obsolete electrical installations, cracked walls, asbestos, portacabins, inoperative fire systems, a lack of shaded areas, schools unequipped for high temperatures and building work that interferes with lessons. And we are talking, above all, about people,” the union protests.
Pupils’ safety at stake
STEC-IC emphasises that pupils have the right to attend class without deficiencies at their school compromising their safety, health or wellbeing, and that pupils with the greatest support needs cannot be condemned to study in inadequate facilities. It also insists that teaching staff have the right to carry out their work in safe and healthy conditions.
Emergency situations at special education centres
The union further denounces that certain educational facilities present conditions that put the physical integrity of teachers and pupils at risk. It also warns of emergency situations at several Special Education Centres, with portacabins, asbestos pipes, cracked walls and inoperative fire systems. And, as though it were the norm, leaks, damp, dust, unusable classrooms and, more recently, the heat.
Years of protocols but no action
“We have spent years hearing talk of protocols, plans and future actions while thousands of teachers and students remain exposed to temperatures that can cause dizziness, dehydration and heatstroke,” it laments. The response is once again what should be an exceptional measure: reducing activity, suspending in-person teaching and sending pupils and staff home.
For the union, closing a school does not air-condition a classroom. A protocol does not remove asbestos. A plan does not repair a leak. An announcement does not fix an electrical installation. And sending pupils home is no substitute for prevention.
No more excuses
“After four years, it is no longer acceptable to keep blaming what was inherited. Nor is it acceptable to present a new protocol every time reality proves that the previous one is not enough. Whoever takes on the management of educational infrastructure also takes on the responsibility to plan, prevent, deliver and be held accountable,” it concludes.
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