“It is the first time that Melilla and Ceuta are going to have that direct and very important representation in the State School Council, which comes to gather that historical demand that has always existed from all educational sectors so that we have that direct participation in the State School Council.”
The Provincial Director of the Ministry of Education, Vocational Training and Sports (MEFPyD), Elena Fernández Treviño, has announced that Melilla will participate with direct representation in the State School Council, a “historic milestone”. Thus, he has assured that this was one of his objectives when he took office at the beginning of this year 2025.
As explained by the Provincial Director, this representation is achieved through the reactivation of the Education Forum, created in 2009 and whose activity was paralysed in 2014. So far, he has clarified, Melilla’s participation has been reduced to Melilla’s union representation, “but there was no direct representation, there was no delegate who represented Melilla in the School Council.”
Fernández Treviño has assured that with the reactivation of the Forum for Education, both Ceuta and Melilla, in the figure of the respective presidents of the City Forums, would become part of the School Council as a ‘member of recognized prestige’. In this way, cities would be represented on the Participation Board and in the Standing Committees, “which make decisions on the educational issues of the city.”
“We believe that this reactivation of the forum and the active participation of the Forum, and also now with voice and vote in the State School Council, is going to be something very positive for the city,” he defended. “It is about transferring all those decisions, all those feelings, collaborations, different voices that make up that Forum and transferring it to the State School Council,” he explained.
The head of the Provincial Directorate has defended that having a voice and vote is “extremely important” because until now the representation was through the Ministry of Education. “Now what we will have is a person who participates in the consultative work, participates in the advice and also participates in the proposals that have to be brought to the Government,” he said.