Despite the ban on student occupationslast week there were occupations in various high schools in the country, including the Alfredo Vásquez Acevedo Institute (VATI). The institution located in Montevideo was occupied by students both Thursday and Friday, and the measures are expected to continue on Monday.
“We are occupying last fighting measure so that we can have a real dialogue with the authorities,” he told The Observer the spokesperson for the IAVA Student Guild (GEI), Manuela Rodríguez.
The union requires building repairs are completedwhich have been claimed since 2018. In addition, the claim platform requests multidisciplinary teams in high schoolY sign language and spanish language classes for “the deaf and hard of hearing companions”. In this line, Rodríguez said that they also ask for an institutional interpreter and the respective substitutes.
The union also claims more budget for education and real student participation, both within the centers and in relation to the educational processes that involve them. In this sense, they show total rejection of educational reform.
The details of the occupation
Rodriguez pointed out that the occupation began on Thursday —with 170 students inside the school—remained during Friday—with 140—and will continue until Monday, September 12. However, he assured that the occupation has no defined completion: “The possibility of continuing to occupy is brought to the assembly day by day, and is decided by the student body present,” explained the GEI spokeswoman.
Both on Thursday and Friday, the occupation was carried out under the conditions established by the current Law of Urgent Consideration (LUC), for which those who occupied allowed students and teachers who wanted to keep the lesson plan could do so.
To conclude, Rodríguez pointed out that the direction of the institution was “highly pressured” by a separate inspection to vacate the high school.
The unions of four schools in Montevideo (Zorrilla, Dámaso Larrañaga, Miranda and Idea Vilariño) denounced that the authorities of the educational centers and the inspections of Secondary they were prevented from occupying the premises because as of last week this measure became illegal, communicated the Association of Secondary Education Teachers (ADES) through four communiqués, each one referring to a different high school.
In an email sent to the students of the Dámaso Antonio Larrañaga high school, the secondary authorities indicated: “As of today, the occupations are illegal (according to the 2014 decree of Tabaré Vázquez, art 19 of the student statute, art 65 of the teaching official statute ). According to the Inspection, all of us must comply with the schedule at the high school, sign attendance and remain there at the corresponding time, “the group of high school workers quoted in a statement.
Jenifer Cherro, general director of the Secondary Education Council (CES), claimed to be unaware of the ADES statement and its reference to the Tabaré Vázquez decree, and explained to El Observador that the current decree that regulates occupations is 281/2020, which indicates that “once an occupation has occurred by workers of a public agency, whatever its legal nature, or of a private company or institution, the hierarch or employer may request the intervention of the Ministry of Labor and Social Security.”
