The Minister of Education and Culture, Pablo da Silveira, has responded to the criticisms of the mayor of Canelones, Yamandu Orsiwho had previously questioned President Luis Lacalle Pou for his comment on the state of the union hall of the Alfredo Vásquez Acevedo Institute (IAVA).
The conflict broke out between students, teachers and the Secondary authorities.
The Canarian mayor had stated that carrying out educational transformations without the participation of key actors, such as teachers and students, is problematic and leads to failure.
He also criticized the president for talking about the state of the institute’s walls without prior knowledge of the situation, and for having cut the education budget.
Minister da Silveira has responded through social networks, asking society to “imagine” a society organized in the way that Mayor Orsi proposes. Da Silveira argues that if only teachers can talk about teaching and only university students with university training, public debate “would become unfeasible”.
In this sense, he has asked to stop disqualifying those who do not have direct experience in the educational field. “Enough of disqualifying!” snapped the hierarch.
A tense fight between the government and public education
The debate between the Minister of Education and Culture and the mayor of Canelones takes place in the midst of a context of tensions between the Uruguayan government and teachers, who have held several demonstrations in recent months against the government’s educational policies.
The government has defended the need to carry out reforms in the education system to improve the quality of teachingbut teachers have denounced a lack of dialogue and participation in the reform process.
