Fidel Trujillo, in his office at the headquarters of the Ministry of Education in the capital of Gran Canaria. /
interview
Fidel Trujillo, General Director of Personnel of the Ministry of Education, believes that the stabilization process through which the Canary Islands offer 5,113 places “is an opportunity that cannot be missed”
Many interim teachers on the islands, who make up more than 30% of the staff, experience the stabilization process with uncertainty due to the absence of scales that benefit them compared to the high number of applicants from other communities. The General Director of Personnel of the Ministry of Education of the Canarian Government shares the concern but is convinced that the vast majority of the 5,113 places will be taken by Canarian teachers.
-Is there any possibility that the standards will be changed in the stabilization process that favor that the places that the Canary Islands take out are for the interim teachers of the islands?
-There is a royal decree, number 270, which is mandatory for all the autonomous communities. If there were any possibility of change, it does not depend on us but on the Government of the nation, because it is a royal decree.
-The Minister of Education has said several times that the Canary Islands have done everything possible to include scales in the merit contest that will benefit the teachers in the Canary Islands, but there are teacher unions and parties that question this.
-We have always proposed to the ministry all the changes that had to have been produced to favor our interim teaching staff. And not only us, but the rest of the communities. For example, first we told them that there would be some presence in the merits contest, but they said that there could not be any type of exceptionality that would prevent any teacher from all over the country from presenting. We also proposed to reward more the services carried out in our community or the possibility of doing some type of exam on Canarian issues, as proposed by Parliament. They told us that it was not legally viable, such as that the documentation had to be delivered here. All the communities also agreed that it was discriminatory to score, for example, for competitive examinations that had not been held in the community where the candidate was applying for the position. Because we have not called oppositions in conservatories, or in other artistic teachings or in some minority FP specialties and if they come from some communities they will have those points that they have not been able to have here. And they also said no. And this is something that we told our unions, that we were going to take to the Personnel commission the discrimination in the specialties where there have been no oppositions or the demand to reward more the seniority of the interim teaching staff, take it to at least 14 years .
– Do not you feel frustrated for not having carried out any of these proposals?
-Yes, sometimes it happens that we make proposals that are in favor of our interim teaching staff and you see that a lawyer says that it is not possible for one reason or another. The teaching bodies are state bodies and we depend a lot on the ministry, which regulates the entire national level. But you always wonder if there won’t be some legal loophole, but we as an administration carry out the proposal and we have to abide by the law, because Royal Decree 270 is mandatory. And also, with total transparency, it is what we have transferred to the unions. Because we have negotiated it with the unions, and we have always had at least two that have supported the proposals that we have brought.
-There are 35,000 applications for the 3,800 places in the merit contest. It is a very high number.
Yes, it is high. But if you compare it with the last high school oppositions of 2021 that 23,000 people applied for, the proportion is even worse.
-But here only teachers with merits appear, who have already worked.
-Yeah. They are many. We are still looking at the requests, we are breaking them down, we have global data but we have to see the experience of each one. The scale is complicated.
-More than half of these requests are from teachers from other autonomous communities. The fear that a large number of places will be for teachers from outside the islands seems justified. Do you have it?
-Yes, of course I fear it, we have always feared that. But we are hopeful that our interns can be in better condition than the others, that applicants from outside with many merit points can get their places in their communities and leave our places for our interns. I am almost sure that our interims will be the ones that occupy the majority of our seats. There will always be someone harmed, with teachers from outside with greater merits, but I hope that they are the minimum. We can’t make any progress yet.
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-Do you have a plan b if in some specialties most of the places are for teachers from outside? What Ángel Víctor Torres called possible pernicious effects of the stabilization process
-Every year between 800 and 1,000 teachers are retiring in the Canary Islands. I think that with that volume, coverage will be given to those temporary workers who may be left without a place. Perhaps in some specialties with few offers there will be difficulties, but the vast majority will continue working in Canarian education, I am convinced. These retirements mean that between now and 2025 there will be another 3,000 positions that our temporary workers will be able to fill. What’s more, we have to continue calling massive oppositions to be able to reach 8% temporary employment.
-In 2025 there will then be another wide offer for the ordinary system of oppositions?
-Yes, definitely.
-The Autonomous Community Budget Law excludes conservatory teachers from the stabilization process. When will the call be modified to make it effective? Will you do the same for art schools?
-We have applied what the stabilization law says to temporary personnel and we have removed those positions. Now Parliament tells us to remove the places from the conservatories of this extraordinary OPE, and we are doing it, I have an obligation. The mandate is to remove the OPE, study the effects and make a new offer.
-And the art schools?
– Now there is an open OPE and Parliament has told us to remove the places from the conservatories, and that is what we will do.
– When will the merit contest be resolved?
-We will do it when we finish the scale, always in agreement with the unions, because we defend the same interests. We can go back to 2024.
-In 2024 the extraordinary stabilization oppositions will also be held. Will the high school and teachers be done at the same time?
-First I want to say that nothing is delayed because we never said they would be this year. We haven’t studied the dates yet. The merit contest will be resolved first and then the oppositions. We will try to coincide with other autonomous communities on the date and the secondary schools and teachers do not have to coincide on the same day, but the forecast is that they will be in June or July.
-With the criticism that in education jobs are going to be stabilized and not people, some unions threaten mobilizations against the stabilization process.
-Honestly I don’t understand. Law 20/21 is an opportunity to stabilize, if we get out of the umbrella of that law we go to decree 276 and it would be losing an opportunity for interim teachers to go through a process with fewer demands than ordinary oppositions. Taking advantage of the stabilization process, both through the merits contest and by opposition, is an opportunity that cannot be missed. For me it would be a very big mistake if they get this to be postponed.