Jorge Quispe / La Paz
Urban teachers last night accepted 800 new items and 2,560 hours that will be paid as part of the agreement reached with the Ministry of Education. With this, the sector decided to lift the strike and the mobilizations that had begun two weeks ago in La Paz and that yesterday spread to the interior of the country.
In the end, the requirement of the 10,000 items was only 3,300; To the 2,500 that the Government had delivered in February, the remaining 800 will be added. “There are 3,300 items, that is maintained and there are 800 that they are giving us,” said the La Paz leader of the urban teacher Leonardo Mamani yesterday to Página Siete. The Government also promised to provide administrative items for the sector.
And the 10,000 items?
The Minister of Education, Édgar Pary, had handled the 3,300 proposal for days, also understanding that in 2021 only 1,700 items were given. In the end, the leadership of the Bolivian Confederation of Urban Education Workers (Cteub) accepted the state approach. On Thursday, the national leader Rolando Alejo Reynoso had admitted that although the fight was for 10,000 items, at least 2,000 newly created items were going to be required.
However, the leader Mamani admitted that although the 10,000 items were not achieved, another victory was achieved.
“To the historical deficit of 10,580 hours that teachers are working for free, now they are going to give us 2,560 hours that will be paid in a first phase and in a second phase another 2,000 hours in May,” he said.
Teachers indicated during the week that they work more hours than agreed and that this time is not paid by the Government, so in some cases, parents pay for that extra time.
An official Cteub bulletin adds that those items that have 80 hours or less may be distributed within the budget ceiling of the same educational unit, always taking care of relevance to guarantee educational quality.
Does it satisfy?
When Mamani was consulted on whether the agreement is convenient and satisfies the sector, the manager described the agreement as “an advance, but it is not enough.”
In another section, it was also determined that the educational reorganization will be carried out in coordination with each of the departmental federations of urban teachers.
“It will not be ‘strictly’ from the Ministry of Education, but where there really is a low statistics (of teachers) it will be coordinated with the federations for the reorganization,” Mamani said.
The agreement also determined not to penalize the 24-hour strike that the sector carried out yesterday throughout the country; however, those hours of mobilization must be replaced. Yesterday, at least seven regions of the country mobilized in the capitals and also blocked the main roads.
Later, Pary admitted that the budget for education should be analyzed with the social sectors and that work tables will be held for this. The leader Mamani suggested yesterday that 1% of the budgets of the portfolios of the Government, Defense and the Vice Ministry of Communication be allocated to the educational level.
They will go back to class
Given this, the teachers decided last night to lift all pressure measures and guaranteed the resumption of school activities from next Monday.
Pary and the national director of the Cteub, Vladimir Laura, sealed the commitment by showing the agreement document.
After demonstrations and the repression they suffered from the police, Mamani, leader of the La Paz teachers, believes that his sector came out stronger.
“We show that the Ministry of Education is not attending to the educational field and that more resources are needed for education,” Mamani said.
