The government headed by the president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador enlists the expansion to double the beneficiaries that had the Full Time Schools with the La Escuela Es Nuestra (LEEN) program, which is expected to deliver direct resources to 7.2 million fathers and mothers of families.
The Full Time Schools (ETC) program was created during the government of former President Felipe Calderón Hinojosa and began with 6,708 primary and secondary schools, a figure that reached 25,134 basic education schools during Enrique Peña Nieto’s six-year term. attended by 3.6 million students.
In interview with THE UNIVERSALthe president of the Education Commission in the Chamber of Deputies, Flora Tania Cruz (Morena), revealed that, although the details of the new strategy in terms of amounts and budgets are not available, the number of beneficiaries might double, “even more”.
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The icing legislator explained that the expansion of the program might begin to operate in the next school year that begins between August and September.
“There is going to be an increase, from the outset, I might tell you that it might even double, that is what I can tell you, and perhaps more, but the specific information already with graphs, statistics, will be made known formally and officially on president and secretary [de Educación] Delfina Gómez, but I can assure you that, without a doubt, it will leave the opposition with its mouth shut, which does nothing but say unfounded things, ”explained the legislator from Morena.
He also ruled out that the new measure is a patronage strategy, and explained that the Ministry of Public Education (SEP) is working on the generation of a report in which corruption is allegedly verified in the management of the Full Time Schools program, among which the lack of food for students stands out, and the non-payment of teachers.
“More resources are going to be allocated, there was a limited budget for the Full-Time Schools, well, now more resources are going to be allocated, because according to the analyzes that are being done and the evaluations that have been carried out in the SEPthey have discovered that there are more schools that meet the characteristics of marginalization, of backwardness, of those that are in vulnerable places and that can be served with these food benefits and extended hours to help working mothers and fathers”, pointed out.
The deputy informed that the details of the expansion of the program will be announced shortly during an official announcement, which will probably be made in the morning conference of President López Obrador.
Cruz Santos explained that the resource to expand the support will be obtained through two ways: through remnants and other methods endorsed by the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit (SHCP), as well as the transition to the direct delivery of resources that will allow eradicate corrupt practices.
“This issue of obtaining resources through remnants we had already discussed informally with the secretary, I know that from the information she gives us she is already working on it, a work table with the SHCP is already set up, they are seeing what I had commented on the remnants and they also have their own proposals, all aimed at generating resources for the new strategy”, he indicated.
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Regarding the alleged misuse of resources, he recalled that last week he met with Gómez Álvarez, who showed him a preliminary report on the matter, which will be made public in detail soon, he said.
“There was opacity in the management of resources and if we want something and we are fighting in this 4T government, it is to change those old ways of working and doing politics, where some benefited and occupied public resources for their pockets and not to deliver things who it should be.
“It was found that the students might even be left without food, they were never measured in past governments, it was also found that despite the fact that the resources were sent to the states, the teachers were not being paid, there are those who covered three hours of compensation and they were paid only one, to give an example.
“But that information is being compiled by the SEP, it will be the secretary who will send us a detailed report at the end of this analysis, and I am sure that we will know and everything that happened with the program will be aired.
“The rules will be a sample of what this government can do with the resource when it works honestly, transparently and is accountable, and that it is enough for more when there is no opacity,” he deepened.
Cruz Santos said that the delivery of the direct resource to the beneficiary parents of ETC is not a patronage scheme.
“It has nothing to do with something patronage, when a program has an objective and a population, and this is served in a general way, there is no way to be something patronage, patronage support is biased.” And he accused the opposition of seeking to “turn around” this benefit: “They don’t like anything.”
