The Ministry of Education, Vocational Training and Sports (MEFPyD) and the Provincial Directorate of Melilla have formed working groups, with permanent coordination, to follow up on educational management and planning, the development of educational plans and teaching centers and the educational infrastructures of the city.
This was announced by the Provincial Director of the MEFPyD in Melilla, Elena Fernández Treviño, in an interview given to Onda Cero, where she explained that these groups have been created with different General Directorates of the Ministry that operate directly in educational competences of the autonomous city and that they are going to develop biweekly meetings “to evaluate a series of challenges that we have proposed”.
Specifically, in terms of infrastructures, it will “monitor all the infrastructures that have been carried out and those that are still pending”.
“The investment in the city has been very great, the commitment to education in the last six years has achieved successes that I believe are palpable for all citizens”, he said and in terms of infrastructures, he has referred to the construction of several educational centers, such as the one located in the old Central Market, in which the School of Languages, the Conservatory, the Adult Education Center, the Virgen de la Victoria Institute, in Jardín Valenciano, or the CEIP Encarna León, “which is one of the most cutting-edge schools in Spain in terms of facilities”.
He has also pointed out the reform of the Vocational Training offices, both in Enrique Nieto and in Queen Victoria Eugenia. “We have digitized classrooms, with an investment of almost four million euros in digitization of all schools in Melilla,” he added, while referring to the transformation of modular classrooms, “which are currently closed, although we have often demanded that the local government make use of them.”
Fernández Treviño has also highlighted the commitment “for the largest children’s school in Melilla” in reference to the Dolores Bartolomé School, in which the Ministry of Education “has put half of the money in that investment (8:05) and, being a counselor in Education, the process began for that work to begin”. “With 197 places for Early Childhood Education in Melilla, it is the largest school,” he said.
With regard to the infrastructure that remains pending, he has referred to the realization of the covers in the courtyards for sports use of the centers or the air conditioning of the classrooms, especially in periods of heat and cold.
“We are going to make a map with everything we have left pending. A development of this work to address each of the issues that we have left,” he said.
Teacher growth
Continuing with this issue, the Provincial Director of Education has made reference to the stabilization of teachers, which has been one of the great bets of the Government of Pedro Sánchez.
“In the period 2012-2017 - he recalled in reference to the PP Government - 60 teaching positions emerged in selective processes for Melilla. From 2018 to the end of 2024 there have been 426 seats for selective processes.” The figure has quadrupled with this government,” he said.
Regarding the teachers’ quota, “we have increased by 300 teachers”, he said, and that is that the Covid pandemic “made those teachers stronger, they have come to stay and the intention of the Ministry of Education is that those quotas continue to be expanded”.
Some quotas, he added, that, in addition, “have allowed the lowering of the ratios in the classrooms, which was a historical demand not only of the teaching sector, but also of the unions.”
With regard to special education, he has indicated that six open classrooms have been created in primary and secondary schools over the past three years. “There are four TEA classrooms right now also serving students with autism spectrum disorder in our city, but we must continue investing in the whole issue of special education and it has been one of the things we have talked about with the Ministry so that classrooms continue to be opened in Primary and Secondary so that all educational centers can provide exclusive and personalized attention to this student and that also the educational itinerary for them and them does not decline,” he explained.
What is more, he pointed out that there must be an itinerary that continues in the Middle and Higher Degree cycles “so that these students have the greatest possible job insertion” and that is that, “as they grow in age, their professional itinerary declines more and the chances of them reengaging in an autonomous and full life”. “It is one of the challenges that we have also proposed with the Ministry of Education,” he said.
He has also pointed to his goal of working on coeducation programs in the city. “There are already equality schools with equality officers in all schools that worked hand in hand with teams,” he said. But the idea of the Provincial Directorate and the Ministry of Education is that these schools for equality are growing, he has apostilled. They also plan to improve the Equality Plan of the Provincial Directorate itself and to improve and elaborate these protocols of violence.