The First Committee of the Senate approved en bloc the proposed new articles, which now move on to the fourth and final debate in the Senate plenary session. According to Jairo Losada, president of the Association of Huila Instituters (Adih), there are some agreements that are unknown and the privatization of the country’s public education would be sought.
The vote on the articles was overwhelming, since 19 congressmen from the commission, both independent, government and opposition, voted in favor of approving the 44 articles contained in the presentation, without any vote against.
The controversy raised
When this document was approved, which has amendments, the country’s teachers unions immediately read it and expressed harsh criticism of it.
The project reconciled by the different benches in the First Permanent Constitutional Commission of the Senate of the Republic, on June 5 of this year, does not correspond to the agreements signed between the National Government and the Colombian Federation of Educators (Fecode).
In this regard, Jairo Losada, president of the Association of Huilenses Teachers (Adih), stated: “the Statutory Reform of Education at the beginning was the hope to strengthen public education, school autonomy, early childhood, preschool, kindergarten, State education would go, the conditions of academic freedom would be improved, technical education, normal education, higher education would be valued, and in an inexplicable way Aurora Vergara, Minister of Education, the senators from all the benches, met at the door closed and for the first time in a Statutory Law, they make agreements that we are unaware of.”
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Would they seek to privatize education?
“Where an amendment emerges that seeks to privatize public education, hand over public resources to merchants. It plans to evaluate the teaching profession, taking into account the Saber-Pisa tests and placing teachers as responsible for the results, without taking into account the reality of the Educational Institutions, based on external results,” said the director.
Likewise, it would ignore the three basic grades of preschool, it would take away power from the Higher Normal Schools, it would attack the National Learning Service (Sena), and the Universities.
“We had made a proposal and we had sent it to Congresswoman Clara López, and apparently there was no support for the Teachers and the senator, María José Pizarro, came out to say that they made some consensus with the parties of differences and in defense of public education that is totally false, what they do is torpedo the Statutory Reform,” stated the president of Adih.
They turned the project into a ‘tamale’
Jairo Losada pointed out that they were surprised, because a strengthened Reform came out of the Congress of the Republic. “And in the First Commission, they turned it into a ‘tamale’, where they included everything, and that’s how they expect us to consume it, without knowing the ‘flavor’ and they want us to remain silent and no! There are political responsibilities here ”.
Now they hope that with the support given to Gustavo Petro, president of the Republic, with the help in the streets, they believe that the president will bet on public education and withdraw this Reform document.
“Undoubtedly, Senator Paloma Valencia is happy, she is the one who said that the teachers have to leave, if the school where they work loses two Saber Test evaluations, she points out that the school bonuses should be given to the boys so that strengthen private education. She has indicated that teachers should not mobilize, because teaching is a service,” declared the president of the union.
You may be interested in: https://diariodelhuila.com/de-victima-del-desplazamiento-zando-a-empresario-de-estufas/
They called for mobilization
In this sense, the directors of Fecode called a day of protest in defense of public education.
The amendment presented was not consulted with the Federation; on the contrary, several proposals that we opportunely submitted in the development of the debates were ignored, with the purpose of being discussed and incorporated, as stated in the parliamentary process.
“And we express our total rejection of the cabals behind closed doors, practices that make territorial realities invisible, curtail acquired rights, democratic freedoms, feed the appetites of sectors and businessmen who see education as a business opportunity, commercialization and outsourcing,” ‘reads’ a statement from the entity.
This is how they have the day planned!
And today in Huila, teachers will mobilize for the reasons already mentioned. Educators will meet at Leesburg Park at 8:00 AM
In the southern area of Huila, the call will be made at the roundabout, located near the ‘Los Cedros’ Residential Complex, municipality of Pitalito, in Garzón in the Olympic Village. In the municipality of La Plata, teachers will gather in front of the facilities of the San Antonio de Padua Hospital.
“Next Thursday, we are going to do pedagogy with the communities. And even though we have finished the school calendar, we invite teachers to assume these great mobilizations with historical responsibility,” the director emphasized.
“We need the citizens to understand that they are also affected by the Statutory Reform of Education, and next Friday, we are going to hold a sit-in in all the municipal ‘headquarters’,” said the director.
Likewise, on Monday, June 17 of this year, a commission of teachers from Huila will arrive in the country’s capital and on the 20th, they will have withdrawn or sanctioned the law.
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Educational infrastructure
Without a doubt another aspect that affects the education landscape of Huila is the ‘poor’ existing educational infrastructure. In this sense, from the Council of Neiva, they asked the board of directors of the entity to create an accidental commission, which would allow analyzing the problems that the schools in the city have.
Likewise, Councilor Félix Trujillo highlighted: “due to the current situation of the infrastructure of the schools we visited, we now want to invite the educational community, Secretary of Education, to join us to learn about the report on the reality of the schools.”
“We want to have an event where there are strong solutions. Likewise, we hope that the Secretary of Municipal Education will share the infrastructure plan with us, because there are many offices that need administrative help. But it is important to be clear that this situation is not going to be solved in a year or two. We need to know how many economic resources should be allocated annually to solve this problem,” said Councilor Johan Steed Ortiz.
Now, faced with the damage to the buildings of the different Educational Institutions, both urban and rural in Neiva, Natalia Andrea Rodríguez, Secretary of Municipal Education, pointed out: “we found that the deficiency in terms of infrastructure in both new and old schools practically exists. in 100% of them. “Several of these problems are inherited from years ago.”
Another issue with the work of the Cacique Pigoanza School, where $10 billion was invested, is that the contract would not contemplate the enclosure of the perimeter, therefore the current administration must manage the economic resources to complete it and prevent becomes a ‘white elephant’.
Similarly, the Comptroller General of the Republic Headquarters School, which is located on 1C # 49-12, Cándido neighborhood and belongs to the Social Promotion Educational Institution of Neiva, has the patio floor ‘fractured’, therefore Teachers inhibit students from playing to avoid accidents.
