The Nicaraguan Teachers Union Unit denounced that the Ministry of Education (Mined) is forcing Nicaraguan teachers to participate in a diploma on “legal system”, in which they address recent repressive laws such as cybercrime and foreign agents, topics that “have nothing to do with » with what is established in the updates of knowledge or teaching that teachers should take.
The teacher Gabriel Putoy Canoa member of the organization, detailed the team of Article 66 that “the Ministry of Education summoned teachers to a diploma that has nothing to do with scientific or pedagogical or methodological matters for the well-being of the teacher as a tool or to facilitate better learning or education for students, but what we have seen is that they are manipulating the teacher to give a diploma on the legal system, regarding cybercrime laws, the law of foreign agents and the law of sovereignty ».
Putoy, who is in exile, stressed that the Law 114 or Teaching Career Law establishes that teachers must be regularly updated regarding knowledge in the framework of teaching, not around the diploma to which the Mined has submitted educators this year.
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Some documents that are in the possession of the team of Article 66 detail the topics to be addressed in the diploma. Unit III, of one of the texts, highlights that repressive laws will be studied, such as the Law for the Regulation of Foreign Agents, the Special Law on Cybercrimes, the Law of Sovereignty, laws with which the Ortega regime has imprisoned dozens of opponents .
In addition, Gabriel Putoy pointed out that with this diploma Nicaraguan teachers feel “threatened.” “The teachers say that this is like a threat, where they are telling you that we have priests imprisoned, businessmen imprisoned and if you break the law, you will also go to jail. They feel threatened by this law,” he said.
“Among the teachers there is a rumor that there is going to be a reform to the INSS and they are already preparing them in case they call a strike, they already know what they are going to face,” he added.
The member of the Teachers’ Union Unit also pointed out that teachers who are not participating in the diploma course, as a “punishment”, are being transferred to other schools that are far from their homes.
“In principle they are being present because they are pressuring him and the teachers who are not going to training on Saturdays, which is the diploma course, are transferring them to other work centers,” he stressed.
“What we are seeing is that here they are punishing them for not attending a party diploma, they are punishing them by transferring them to work centers farther from their home and they are still not assigning transportation allowances, because when the teacher is too long for his work center, the law establishes something called zoning, that teachers have rights and they are not assigning that zoning,” he added.
