A significant number of state educational establishments in Mendoza were left without internet service. Internet due to a debt accumulated by Alberto Fernández’s management with suppliers. This situation affects schools initial, primary, secondary and Higher Education Institutes (IES) throughout the province.
The interruption of the service, provided by Arsat and the Conectar Igualdad program, is due to the suspension of payments to supplier companies since mid-2023, during the presidency of Fernández and the management of the Ministry of Economy by Sergio Massa. This problem has intensified with the change of administration to the government of Javier Milei, leaving the schools and tertiary without the necessary connection to Internet.
Approximately 40% of educational establishments have been affected by the situation. Following the reports that began to arrive due to the problem with the connectivity coming from the Nation, from the General Directorate of Schools (DGE), they reported that they are trying to make the relevant connections to the service provided by the province.
“Effectively since last year – May, June, July depending on the providers – the national government was late in paying the electricity service. Internet of the technological floors that are installed throughout the country, not only in Mendoza,” the Coordinator of Technological Policies of the General Directorate of Schools (DGE), Patricio Cabral, began explaining the situation to MDZ.
According to the National Education Law, the service of Internet must be provided by the National Ministry of Education. However, since 2017, the province of Mendoza began a coverage plan in all schools. The Nation, Cabral said, “he installed in all the schools the technological infrastructure. That is, it is not the same to reach a point in the school that can generate WiFi networks and do all the internal wiring and that is what Nación did in schools across the country with a program to cover the 100% of the institutions. In Mendoza we will be around 80%.”
At the time, the Technological Policy Coordinator of the DGE said, “there were many schools that they did not have service coverage because they were in areas where there were no suppliers or because the tender was not closed. So, with the tender of the province that has coverage of all educational establishments, it was connected to the technological floor.”
Given the cutoff of the service due to the Nation’s debt with the service providers, “what happened was that as the schools they were requiring it, the work was being done to be able to have that connectivity that the province provides in the technological floors and thus the provision of Internet within the educational establishment was not seen with any change.”
The schools They did not receive any notification, nor notice of the possibility of being cut off due to non-payment corresponding to the Ministry of Education. However, noticing this situation, the DGE had been requesting for some time that the nation allow them to have the administration of these technological floors, “in order to balance the connectivity”said Cabral.
The change in management did not favor communications with the government. “It was not clear who the physically responsible people were,” said the official, referring to the authorities of Educ.ar, the State company that integrates technology inside and outside the classrooms and the Conectar Igualdad program. “They always promised that the service would be restored and last week they told us that they had already made the payment of what was owed and that the service had to be restored.” But after monitoring the affected institutions this Monday, they found that “this service has not yet been restored.”
The establishments that have been affected by the lack of service provided by the Nation, “are around between 50 and 60%,” said Cabral, although he clarified that since there is a part that also have the service of the province only approximately 40% are without connectivity.
Finally, the official stated that they have been requesting the administration of the technological floors for approximately more than five years. “In the last 15 days, Minister Tadeo García Salazar himself has presented formal notes requesting this administration of the apartments again, but it is a decision of the national government to allow it or not,” he concluded.
