[►] The municipal building that became a school

https://www.neuqueninforma.gob.ar/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/DiscursoVictor-Ortega-Inauguran-CPEM-97-En-Los-Miches.mp3

Speech by mayor of Los Miches, Víctor Ortega.

CPEM 97 already has its own space that will allow 50 students from Los Miches to travel. It was given by the municipality and conditioned at the express request of the governor.

Governor Rolando Figueroa ratified the prominent place that his administration gave to the education of the people of Neuquén, guaranteeing access to all corners of the province. In the north, the entire community of Los Miches celebrated the relocation of its secondary school, next to the municipality.

This is CPEM Nº97, a school that previously shared the space with a primary school, but due to the increase in enrollment, it thought about expanding with trailers. The governor’s visit allowed progress on an alternative proposal.

The remodeling of the municipality freed up an annex building that was going to be used for the Deliberative Council, and at the express request of the governor, it changed and so did the future of many children.

Today the two-story building will accommodate around 50 students, who are in the first to third years. The school was created on May 23, 2022, when the first 11 students began their first year.

Figueroa referred to the difficulties that studying from the interior of Neuquén previously meant, he reviewed his family experience emigrating and his desire to reverse inequalities to guarantee social justice.

“We defend neutrality in school,” said Figueroa and praised the teachers who maintained classes despite the needs. “There are other ways to complain when one does not agree, but it is not by abandoning the teaching of children,” he indicated.

“When we abandon children’s education, we are actually harming them, because we are not giving them the tools to truly be free. We always have to provide the opportunities,” she emphasized.

Elsewhere, in his speech, the governor recalled that “the best salary agreement that existed in Argentina with teachers has been with the teachers of Neuquén” just as the continuity of public works is guaranteed despite the lack of national resources. .

For her part, the Minister of Education, Soledad Martínez, recognized that the educational community continued to function despite a State that did not provide adequate support, despite endless inequalities that are seen every day in the province.”

“Today we are getting a little closer to ensuring that the students’ dreams are those of other young people in the province,” he reinforced.

Mayor Víctor Ortega revived the effort of the school’s journey with emotional words and recognized it could not have been achieved without the help of the governor. He also anticipated his future desire to be able to add virtual classes to a higher level in the building.

“I ask the kids that this thing, which cost a lot to do, we left the economic aspect aside, but what it cost us to build, the effort of a lot of people, of hours, of dreams, today we are going through it, you we are transferring to you,” Ortega emphasized.

The school director, Matildo Andrés, also reviewed the struggle of the entire educational community to access the new space. “We were able to accomplish this without missing a day of school. We always appeal to dialogue and we had to teach by example,” he noted.

This Tuesday the community of Los Miches celebrated the inauguration of the new school building and the fact that the young people of the town no longer have to move to other locations to continue their secondary studies.