March 22, 2023, 10:42 AM
March 22, 2023, 10:42 AM
The urban magisterium ratified the mobilized strike this Friday, 24 March, after the dialogue with the Ministry of Education broke down. Yesterday (Tuesday), the teachers’ union leadership and authorities from the Ministry of Education met to analyze the demands of the sector, which includes the provision of more items and the rejection of the new curriculum.
Four hours after the dialogue table was set up, the teachers’ leaders left the place due to the lack of consensus. “They give us the same answers as always, the same lack of will and interest to meet our demands. We cannot continue talking when outside they are clubbing and gassing our colleagues”, said Patricio Molina, leader of the Confederation of Urban Education Workers of Bolivia (CTEUB).
He reported that the 24-hour strike this Friday will be nationwide, with suspension of activities schools, blocking roads and closing
borders.
According to Molina, to meet the growth of the student population, about 9,000 items are needed, for the historical deficit there are about 700,000 hours (7,000 items), and that added exceed 15,000 items.
He regretted that the Ministry is closing by saying that it will only give 2,500 incomplete itemsbecause they are only delivered with a charge of 96 hours, “and in primary school, 120 hours are needed, while in secondary school, 136 and 192 hours,” said Molina.
In addition, he pointed out that Santa Cruz is the department most affected by the lack of items, because it has educational units with teachers working for free, or being paid by the parents, due to the deficit in the workload.
For his part, the Minister of Education, Edgar Pary, assured that 2,500 items are being executed, which, for reasons of change and/or movement of teachers, etc., have remained pending execution.
“In Santa Cruz we had close to 1,000 items to execute. We proposed that First let’s run the budget of the itemsto know how much is required and how far we have advanced in the historical deficit,” he argued.
