The steamroller of Sandinista deputies in the National Assembly promotes an initiative for a Law to reform Law 582, the General Education Law, and reform and addition to Law 89, the Law of Autonomy of Higher Education Institutions.
The explanatory statement states that the purpose of the modification will be to strengthen the higher education subsystem and the National Council of Universities (CNU) as its governing body.
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With the reform of the Law, the institutions of higher education will be defined in accordance with the law “as well as the functions of the CNU in relation to the regulation of higher education, taking into account the human development policy, among others.”
Regarding the justification of the initiative, the document states that “education is an indeclinable function of the State. It is up to this to plan, direct and organize it. The national education system functions in an integrated manner and in accordance with national plans. Its organization and functioning are determined by the Law».
CNU decides which universities integrate it
In the proposal to reform Law 89, Law of Autonomy of Higher Education Institutions, article 56 states that the state universities that make up the National Council of Universities (CNU) as the governing body of the higher education subsystem are the following:
National Autonomous University of Nicaragua, León (UNAN-León), National Autonomous University of Nicaragua, Managua (UNAN-Managua), National University of Engineering (UNI) 1.4. National Agrarian University (UNA), National Polytechnic University (UNP) —formerly UPOLI—.
Other houses of study that will incorporate the CNU are the Francisco Luis Espinoza Pineda National University, Ricardo Morales Avilés National Multidisciplinary University, Community and Intercultural Universities: Bluefields Indian and Caribbean University University of the Autonomous Regions of the Nicaraguan Caribbean Coast (URACCAN).
They exclude the Central American University (UCA) from the list. With this, that house of studies would be, once and for all, without the constitutional 6%. They also incorporate the rectors of the new state universities created with the “confiscation” of private universities.
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As for the private universities, the law initiative does not mention which ones are governed by the CNU, they only mention the leaders of the National Union of Students of Nicaragua (UNEN), the secretary general of the Federation of Teaching Professionals of Higher Education (FEPDES) and the Secretary General of the Federation of Unions of University Workers of Nicaragua (FESITUN).
Once the law has been reformed, it will be in force as of its publication in La Gaceta, the official newspaper. In this way, the Ortega regime takes another step in control of the universities. recently it canceled the personality of 10 houses of higher education and the Polytechnic University of Nicaragua (UPOLI) passed into its power.
