Costa del Sol news: Educational support cuts in Malaga schools

IN the Colegio Carmen de Burgos in Malaga, there are a total of 74 schoolchildren with specific educational support needs but only one PTIS monitor is available to take care of all these children who require assistance.

In the Colegio Jardín Botánico de la Cala de Mijas there are two specific classrooms and 40 children integrated into ordinary classrooms. They share the support member with another centre and only have one Hearing and Language teacher for all cases.

These examples serve to highlight the situation of special needs. The number of children in need of help increases every year but the resources allocated to them do not grow in equal measure. The families of schoolchildren, who fight daily “so that the rights of these children are fulfilled” are demanding the ordination and regulation for the specialists of Therapeutic Pedagogy, Hearing and Language, PTIS and Orientation.

“We have been without a monitor for two months because she is on leave, the Board do not send anyone, they say there is no money, there are always cuts and we do not understand that with these children there are cuts,” says Eva María Ortega, whose daughter is in school at the CEIP Los Angeles. This mother was denied enrollment in centres closest to her home because they did not have adequate resources. “Teachers take turns with each other, lend a hand and do what they can, they are great professionals,” she adds. However, she emphasizes that “if every day is hard, imagine having to constantly fight for a right that belongs to them.”