The Minister of Education, Marco Antonio Ávila, once again referred to the complex panorama that the Chilean school system is experiencing, given high levels of desertion and absenteeism derived from the Covid-19 pandemic, in the midst of a climate of violence led by hooded men who throw Molotov cocktails towards the police at the exit of establishments such as the INBA or the Liceo de Aplicación.
Faced with this discouraging scenario, in conversation with Radio DNAthe head of the Ministry of Education (Mineduc) declared that “our priority from the first minute was to assume the consequences of the pandemic.”
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Professor Ávila explained that “we had been going down since 2011, with 60,000 people outside the educational system, and between 2017 and 2018 we reached 40,000, one of the lowest numbers in the country in the last 10 years.” However, as a result of the pandemic, this figure rose to 50,000 students, he explained.
The minister explained that, according to the analysis of the Education portfolio, the potential students who dropped out mainly correspond to young people in secondary education between third and fourth grade, and mostly students from the technical-professional field. In this sense, he stated that “for us, next year is a priority, that is why we built a budget that grows 5.3% that ensures school subsidies and food services.” And he detailed: “we have approved a budget of more than $250 billion, dedicated exclusively to re-linking.”
“Before there was no budget for this. The lines that were dedicated to this were more efforts and guidelines that were made. Today, all the budget that is not directed to subsidies, is destined to re-involvement,” stressed the Secretary of State to radial medium.
It is worth mentioning that Minister Ávila promised to advance joint work to not only reconnect dropout students, but also to resolve issues such as the quality and quantity of Junaeb food rations, improve school infrastructure, and reformulate projects educational.
Regarding the acts of violence, the head of the Ministry of Education had assured that, although the Safe Classroom Law exists and is applicable in some cases, it is more appropriate to sanction students by following the internal coexistence manuals, with which it is possible to reach the more serious sanction that means the cancellation of the registration and the expulsion.
