The General Directorate of Secondary Education issued a statement in which denied that its authorities have prohibited the initiative promoted by a high school in Tacuarembo to change its name in honor of the poet Washington Benavides.
Moreover, according to Secondary, “the community was expressly authorized to generate activities or cultural events that promote the aforementioned denomination.”
The director of the Washington Benavides Chair, Cley Espinosa, had told The Observer that “A middle management” of Secondary communicated that naming Tacuarembo’s high school No. 5 in honor of the poet would go against the principle of secularism. This was first communicated by phone and then ratified in a meeting.
“What the high school did was ask for instructions on how to continue with the process, but it immediately complied with the authority’s order,” Espinosa had explained.
For her part, the director of Secondary School, Jenifer Cherro, declared on Tuesday to The Observer that he was not aware of “any official proposal”, but assured that he would request information on the case. A day later, however, the Secondary statement was released stating that the campaign was encouraged by the authorities.
In the statement, Secondary regretted “the confusions” and stated “expressly its openness to dialogue with all institutional actors to provide the necessary guidance”.
In addition, he recalled that thedenomination of educational centers is regulated by the normative dispositions Y requires a formal approachSecondary explained.
“In a meeting held by the Teaching Inspection with the Management team and the teachers working on the nomination proposalwhich had the objective of accompanying the development process of said initiative and of the Cultural Identity Project in which it is framed, the community was expressly authorized to generate activities or cultural acts that promote the referred denomination”, concludes.
