“There are no scholarships, groups or trained teachers”, among the problems

Fernando Camacho Servin

Newspaper La Jornada
Monday, September 5, 2022, p. 3

The lack of scholarships, the precarious conditions in their schools, the scarcity of groups to continue their studies and the lack of well-trained teachers are some of the problems that many students of the National Polytechnic Institute (IPN) face on a daily basis, who for more than a week they have held protests and shots of campuses.

In interview with the day, Mavid–fictitious name to protect his identity– explained that he and many other students of the Interdisciplinary Professional Unit of Engineering and Social and Administrative Sciences (UPIICSA) resort to the sale of sweets and other items to obtain resources that allow them to continue with their careers. , given the difficulty of obtaining official support.

I sell candy and there are other colleagues who sell jewelry, stationery, cell phone chargers and even slippers. I know that the coexistence regulations say that it is prohibited, but we do it because of the lack of scholarships. Given this, the director sent untrained prefects, who are very violent, to check our backpack by force, to take a photo of our identification and to intimidate us.assured the young man.

One more conflict that students suffer, he said, is that the lack of groups to take their subjects forces them to spend more than 12 hours a day in school, which prevents them from taking any job or developing other activities.

On Tuesdays I have class from 7 to 9 in the morning, which is the heaviest; then another one from 1 to 2 in the afternoon and from there I wait until the one at 7 at night, which ends at 9. It’s all day! With the crazy hours I have, no company is going to want to hire melament Mavidwho is originally from an entity close to the capital.

He added that there are teachers who give their classes well and help their students, but many others they have no interest or commitment with young people or even demand money from them to pass them.

“How is it possible for a teacher to fail an entire group so that they take private courses with him, where they force you to join, or that they tell you ‘I’ll pass them if they pay me 2 thousand pesos’?” he deplored. As a student, if I don’t see a solution, I think I’m going to have to drop out, because I don’t have enough to pay for my degree.