Oswaldo Zegarra, head of the National Superintendence of Higher University Education (Sunedu), considered that behind the approval of the law that recomposes the board of directors of this entity, and removes the Ministry of Education as the governing body of the improvement of university quality , there are intereststo once again turn universities into profit-making and politically manipulative entities”.
In that sense, Zegarra said he hopes that the Executive will observe the norm that yesterday had the votes of Fuerza Popular, Avanza País and Perú Libre, among others.
“I hope that not only the Minister of Education Rosendo Serna, but the entire Council of Ministers and the President of the Republic observe this law because it is going, in some way, to bring down one of the few state reforms that the country has”, Zegarra pointed out in RPP.
The official also recalled that this reform has transcended several governments and several Ministers of Education, and yet it has had the green light of “a mistaken Congress, full of intrigues and insults to a body that has somehow contributed to improving higher education, in all its aspects”.
Minister Serna’s call
Zegarra also said that yesterday he received a call from the head of the Ministry of Education, Rolando Serna, minutes after the controversial law was approved in Congress.
“We have agreed to meet next week, surely in order to have some support or agreement on the decisions that have to be made.”, he indicated. Serna did not anticipate whether or not the Executive was going to enact the rule.
This morning the president of the Council of Ministers, Aníbal Torres, pointed out that the Executive has not yet made a decision on the matter.
“I couldn’t tell you that [si se promulgará o no] because I have not studied the law, I have not seen it, I have not read it, I have to read the law to see if we make any observations or promulgate and publish it, if there are no observationsTorres pointed out.
What does Sunedu question about the approved standard?
Oswaldo Zegarra questioned in the first place the recomposition of the board of directors of Sunedu that raises the approved norm, considering that in this way “what is being done is to capture its board of directors, through representatives that totally change the autonomy that the members of this body currently have”.
This alludes to the entry of representatives of public and private universities, who do not currently have a seat on the council. “This representation is what totally changes their autonomy to make decisions”, he warned. “We have high-level professionals who come from public and private universities, but they do not represent anyone”, he added about his current composition.
Serna warned that the approved rule also removes the Ministry of Education as the governing body of the policy to improve the quality of university education.
“By not giving (Minedu) that function, they are practically taking away the responsibility of giving adequate policies so that the educational reform persists, continues, in continuous improvement, that is the great risk”, he stressed.
Regarding whether the approval of the norm wins the universities with a license denied by Sunedu, Zegarra replied that since there is no possibility for the State to intervene, “they will be able to do whatever they want, as it has been before”.
He also responded to the criticism of some parliamentarians by assuring that in the last three years Sunedu has not paid for consultancies, because “we have highly qualified technical staff”.
