Teachers and relatives of students from Special Schools for Comprehensive Training of the City of Buenos Aires (CABA) held a festival this afternoon in the Parque Patricios neighborhood against budget cuts and “educational proposals aimed at students with disabilities over 22 years of age” that will affect more than a thousand families.
Eliana Villar, mother of a student from school 18, told Télam that this meeting aims to “make visible the claim of thousands of families who are affected by this measure” and stressed that Since 2021, the government of Horacio Rodríguez Larreta “has been defunding special education.”
“This measure particularly affects male and female students who are over 22 years old, leaving them without the possibility of continuing their studies and without the possibility of accessing a job,” he remarked.
Villar indicated that the resolution of the Ministry of Education headed by Soledad Acuña affects “13 institutions dedicated to special education and affects more than a thousand Buenos Aires families” and added that the Buenos Aires government “did not provide a superior proposal.”
In addition, Miryam, sister of a 29-year-old student who attends school 36, told Télam that the budget cut is visible in transportation, in the dining room and in the reduction of workshops. “Since the measure was implemented, many boys do not have a dining room and they have to bring their own food, and also their transportation was cut,” he said.
He noted that some educational institutions told their families that students could not stay inside the institutes during lunch. “Many of the boys have difficulty moving or communicating. This complicates all families,” she maintained.
He explained that “they only took the graduation age of the students (22 years), but they left exposed to thousands of children who need educational support.”
The relatives demanded that the Buenos Aires government comply with resolution 155/11, which guarantees “a comprehensive education that develops all the dimensions of the person and enables both for social and labor performance, as well as for access to higher education”.
Eliana Villar stressed that since the request was made, the authorities of the Buenos Aires Education portfolio did not give answers. She added that they were received by members of the Ombudsman’s Office, who advised the relatives. Besides, Miryam said that the grouped relatives presented a “judicial protection” against the measure of the Ministry leads Acuña.
Villar considered that after the festival they hope that the Buenos Aires government opens the channels of dialogue so that it complies, not only with resolution 155/11, but also that the 5% job quota for boys in this situation becomes effective.
Artists such as La huesuda Rock, La Juani, Jun Che, Dijo quesillo y miel, and Romina Oviedo participated in the festival. In addition, vegetable garden, juggling, makeup and prints workshops were held.
Accompanying families and teachers of the comprehensive special schools of the City who resist a new removal of rights from the Ministry of Education of Larreta and Acuña. pic.twitter.com/Sdq6jP1Kf9
– Claudio Morresi (@ClaudioMorresi) May 22, 2022
