Judith Pena | February 27, 2023
Educator unions are concerned about the possible hiring of nine new consultants for the Panama Bilingual program, educators have requested the Ministry of Education (MEDUCA) to audit this program.
The main objective of the Program is to implement the teaching of the English language as a second language in the official educational centers of the Republic of Panama.
The concern of the teachers is that these calls for consultants are made by the Organization of Ibero-American States for Education, Science and Culture (OEI), however the charges or payments will be made by MEDUCA.
Faced with this situation, the teacher leader of the Veragüenses Educators Association, Luis Sánchez, is more than 100 million dollars that have been invested in the program that has proven not to be functional and not to give the expected results.
Only during the previous Government, a loan was processed and approved with the Inter-American Development Bank for $100 million for this program. This money was approved to be executed in the 2019-2024 period of President Laurentino Cortizo.
Sánchez maintained that it is unknown how much money has been spent on this program or what was actually done with that money and which universities were able to train educators.
He compared Panama Bilingual with the Aprende al Máximo program where too much money was invested and no results were seen.
“It doesn’t surprise me that some of these donuts from the Ministry of Education want to receive those millions of slices,” he said, indicating that with 100 million dollars many things can be done for the country’s education.
He asked the Minister of Education, Maruja Gorday de Villalobos, to meet with the teachers as soon as possible to once again discuss the issue of auditing the program and its results.
