Intervention in the Debate of the State of the Municipality

Isabel Picó Ledesma

Representative of the Municipal School Council

8-6-2021

"It is a privilege to be here with you and to be part of the representatives of the sectoral councils of our city.

I would like to thank all the collectives for their work, as well as the City Council for facilitating this debate.

The Municipal School Council, which I represent, is made up of students, teachers, management teams, PAS, administrative staff, trade unions and neighbourhood associations. It is a body that oversees the quality and educational management of the centers of our city.

This course has been very difficult because we have suffered, to a greater or lesser extent, a pandemic that we have had to face and that has not yet ended.

A course in which spaces, ratios and teaching have been adapted to carry out both face-to-face and telematic classes.

Within days of completing the course, I can say that we have achieved:

- To deal with the pandemic.

- Keep the classrooms open.

- That the centres are safe spaces.

- Coordinating different bodies: education, health, cooperation, environment, police...

Always with the aim of providing students with the quality education they deserve. And, the educational community, united, we have achieved it.

In Elche, we have a wide range of schools, public, private and concerted where the integration of students is a priority.

During this year, 21,812 children/primary school students were enrolled, 11,413 secondary school students and 3,276 VET students.

100 Nursing Assistants and 8 Early Childhood Education Technicians have been hired and have worked with teaching teams for six months to make the centres safe.

We have received air purifiers with HEPA filters distributed by the Ministry of Education and the municipality has completed this intervention.

Cleaning in high contact areas has been reinforced. As well as in the toilets in the middle of the morning, proceeding in the afternoon to a more intense cleaning.

We have counted on 45,000 Euros in scholarships aimed at Infant and Primary schools to facilitate the compensation of inequalities and adequate schooling for the most vulnerable students.

Thanks to Edificant, the classrooms of Garrofers, La Galia and La Vallverda have been put into operation as well as the dining room of Jaime Balmes.

And the two units of the IES Montserrat Roig are in the execution phase.

Currently under construction the IES Journalist Vicent Verdú.

In fact, the first steps towards readjusting the membership have already been taken.

The Council has proposed many activities and projects. In recent months, the Conference "Amaze yourself with science" and CONVIELX have been held: "Education and coexistence in times of pandemic".

Collaboration with other entities is always present. In order to promote transversal educational activities in schools.

The work being done on the absenteeism programme is a clear example of good work and coordination between families, centres, the council, social services, the educational inspectorate, the local police... among others.

This course 2020-2021, shows us some alarming figures. Around 1000 notifications in Infant and Primary and over 700 in Secondary Education. Admittedly, they will decrease once the cases of VOCID of relatives, or unjustified confinements, etc.

As you well know and we are commenting this afternoon, everything is susceptible to improvement.

- The administrations must provide personal and economic resources so that the Absenteeism Program of our city receives support and can continue with the great work that they do.

- The centers would appreciate the continuity of the Educovid staff and the technicians of Early Childhood Education, as well as the increase of cleanliness.

- It is essential to continue with the coordination meetings of the professionals of each sector that, until now, have led the Departments of Education and Health of the City.

- Very important to integrate all students are educational scholarships, with which we ensure that any student/students have opportunities to study.

- It is necessary to continue to listen to the centres in order to coordinate the organisation of complementary, extra-curricular, sporting and cultural activities.

As I said, it has been an intense, arduous, very laborious and as always very exciting year.

An extraordinary effort has been made to continue to provide quality education with proper health guarantees.

To conclude my speech, I would like to acknowledge the work done by all those people who have made it possible for the school year now ending to have developed normally, despite the exceptional circumstances that have affected us."