Of the 400 teachers who are unemployed in Aracataca, about 325 are affiliated with the unionwhile at the national level today about 400 thousand who serve a population of between 10 and 11 million students, are also in public squares protesting.
According to Omar Vargas, teacher and active member of the Subdirectorate of Educators of Aracataca, indicated: “The situation is really complicated for the Colombian teachers, because we are in the public squares of Aracataca, Bogotá and in the different squares of the country, demanding and demanding that the Congress of the Republic lower the amendments they have made to torpedo the statutory Law of education. It is really a bill that was transformed by the opposition sectors and today there is no clarity in the defense of public education, which shows that what they want is to privatize education, outsource it, commercialize it and turn it into a business.”
And he added: “We want to tell the Colombian people, the students, and the parents, that the teacher fighting is also teaching because we have to learn to demand rights, as stated in the Colombian constitution of 1991. Today there is a fight between the alternative and progressive sector with the right-wing opposition sectors. There is a proposal by the Historical Pact, and another by the opposition, so let’s hope that the legislature ends on July 20 and it is most likely that this law will either be approved or sunk, and if it is approved, it would be very serious for the Colombians and for the teaching profession, and if it collapses then the government will have to re-present the statutory law of education that seeks to guarantee the rights of children and adolescents, in Colombia, from the rural and popular sectors, who do not have a good economy.”
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According to Omar Vargas, The strike in Aracataca continues, and they invite parents to a large meeting this Wednesday from 8:00 in the morning in the facilities of the main headquarters of the John F. Kennedy Educational Institution in Aracataca, and another at 10:00 in the morning, at the Indeba Educational Institution in Buenos Aires, to transmit and publicize the actions and foundations of the strike .
In dialogue with Pablo Marriaga Crespo, president in charge of the Subdirectorate of Educators of Aracataca and leader of the mobilization in the land of the Nobel Prize winner, highlighted: “In Aracataca we are still on permanent strike, because this Congress, which has dedicated itself to torpedoing the government of Gustavo Petro, has already introduced some amendments to the Statutory Law, which threaten public education, and aim more than anything at ending the preschool level, because we hoped that the poor person could take his son to attend kindergarten, pre-kindergarten and transition in public institutions, and we see that the amendment cuts off the complete preschool and we are only going to function in the transition grade, which is not we agree”.
And he pointed out: “Let us clarify that we are not protesting against our president, he is not to blame, nor is he responsible for the fact that this Congress is making projects that go against the people, as if the Democratic Center has been doing so with those amendments.” and Radical Change. And I take this opportunity to indicate that we are always aware of what is happening at the national level, and at the municipal level, because we have to worry because Aracataca does not deserve the luck it has, and especially with what is coming with the construction of the dual carriageway that It is also going to harm us and for that reason, we are going to take up the flags, to defend our land.”
