The Formentera Departments of Education and New Technologies have unveiled an informational poster highlighting possibilities for Internet connectivity on Formentera. The document was designed to give primary and secondary schools information that teachers could pass along to parents in an effort to ensure pupils have Internet access while kept at home by the state of alarm.

How can we get Internet access for our children?

If you don’t have Internet and you’d like to, there are a number ways to get connected, whether you live in town or out in the countryside.

1) Do you have a cable connection and/or a landline?

Then most likely you can get a fibre optic or ADSL connection. Multiple companies offer the service; if phone them and tell them your address, they’ll advise you on the best option, cost and how long it will take to get set up.

2) Your house can’t get cable or fibre optic? Or you prefer not to instal a cable Internet connection?

2.1 Do you have a mobile phone and get good service (signal reception) where you live?

As long as reception is good where you live, all you need is a mobile phone with a contract for data service or with a SIM card equipped for data service. If they let you share data via Wi-Fi, you’re all set. No installation is necessary. It’s important you contact your service provider so you can review your options and find out about conditions concerning data use.

2.2 You don’t have a mobile phone, but service where you live is good.

You can connect to Internet with a SIM card and a 4G modem. No installation is necessary. You don’t even need a contract; prepaid services work, too. Prices vary per data use.

2.3 Reception is bad were you live?

You also have the options of a wireless radio-wave (WiMAX) connection and satellite connection. For these services you’ll need to contact a WiMAX or satellite Internet service provider. They’ll advise you about the best option, prices and how long it will take to get set up.

How can we help our neighbours’ children get Internet?

If you live in a building in town, your Internet connection might be useful to your neighbours’ children.

How do you do it?

Don’t set a password on your home Wi-Fi connection and configure it so others can connect.
If you know your neighbours don’t have a connection of their own —and you think they may be able to use one for schoolwork, email, online platforms and a bit of daily entertainment— give them your password.

And what if families can’t afford an Internet connection?

Contact the Formentera Department of Social Welfare (Benestar Social) via phone or email: 971 32 12 71 / benestarsocial@conselldeformentera.cat

7 April 2020
Department of Communications
Consell de Formentera

The Consell de Formentera reports that municipal nurseries Escoleta de Sa Miranda and Escoleta del Camí Vell have created a Facebook profile to keep in touch with parents during the state of alarm and offer ideas for keeping homebound young ones occupied amid the temporary shuttering of schools. The island’s youth drop-in centre has adopted a similar strategy as well, using its Instagram account to spotlight proposed Casal de Joves activities over the Internet. Another municipal handle being leveraged to deal with the current situation is the Instagram account of Formentera Marxa, which, together with a newly christened Facebook profile aimed at reaching ever more islanders, has become a clearing house of games and entertainment for followers.

During the state of alarm, the various arms of the Formentera government have adapted and rallied around a common goal: to create new channels of information and strengthen ones already in place in an effort to help islanders through isolation. Last Friday, the Consell de Formentera unveiled its “Formentera es queda a casa” [Formentera is staying home] profile on Facebook, sharing entertaining content in an bid to make confinement more bearable.

25 March 2020
Department of Communications
Consell de Formentera

The Consell de Formentera reports that the island’s early-childhood learning centres —escoletes— will close their doors for two weeks from Monday 16 March. It is the latest in a line of precautionary measures aimed at local containment of Covid-19, following on the heels of the Govern balear’s announcement it will suspend on-site learning at the pre-K, primary and secondary levels as well as the University of the Balearic Islands. Accredited instruction at the Formentera School of Music will also be suspended from Monday.

Children will be received tomorrow, Friday 13 March, at Formentera’s two escoletes, though parents and guardians who are able to avoid leaving their young ones at school are encouraged to do so. The president once again voiced her hope that “calm minds prevail during this exceptional situation” and appealed anew to islanders’ sense of “personal responsibility in minimising risky behaviour and protecting our most vulnerable”.

12 March 2020
Department of Communications
Consell de Formentera

Catalan language instruction will be offered to locally-stationed officers of the Guardia Civil as part of a collaborative agreement struck by the Language Advisory Service of the Formentera Department of Language Policy and the local seat of the General Administration of the State.

Evenings from this Thursday 12 March, five members of the force will attend classes in a room at the Guardia Civil barracks. The first round of classes starts at the beginners’ level —also known as A2— and runs for three months.

According to the island’s language policy chief, Raquel Guasch, the agreement with the Guardia Civil “promotes learning and encourages officers of the law stationed on Formentera to use the local language”. The first of its kind, the agreement between Formentera and Madrid’s office in the Pine Islands is aimed at creating opportunities to learn Catalan and putting the language within reach of Formentera-based officers of the Guardia Civil.

“This is a first step”, said Consellera Guasch, “but the goal is to continue adding courses at different levels, like B1 and B2”.

10 March 2020
Department of Communications
Consell de Formentera