2023-04-24 03:51:00
Since the beginning of the 2023 school year (and two decades ago), the provincial educational reality has been led by only two of the sectors of the educational community (the rest, in the Government’s opinion, have cast roles). : the Ministry of Education and the Union of Educators of the Province of Córdoba (UEPC).
Conflicts between these parties, we know, entail the loss of school days, with harmful consequences, so we wonder if any of these parties really ensures the effective fulfillment of the right to education, in its access and quality, in equal conditions for all the Cordovan boys.
The theory
Law 9,870 provides: “Education in the province of Córdoba tends to reach the highest levels of quality. To this end, the provincial government implements the necessary policies…”.
On the other hand, the UEPC membership card states: “In defense of education and educators. We are a union that fights for an inclusive and quality education.”
On these postulates, one might answer: “Yes: the ministry and union work together in pursuit of a qualitative and egalitarian education for the million children and young people of Cordoba who depend on this tool to forge a future of prosperity!”.
Reality
Meager salaries, scarce and outdated teacher training, schools in ruins, disinvestment in equipment and technology, obsolete curricula, insufficient teaching appointment, unfortunate pedagogical performance, very high dropout rates, desolate situation of students with disabilities show that those premises are only an expression of wishes , a chimera, a utopia.
So, which of these institutions would be failing in these noble objectives? We believe both. Union and ministry are responsible for the provincial educational debacle, because they are the same.
Let us remember that, in 1988, Walter Grahovac took over as head of the UEPC. After 14 years in office, he rose to the provincial educational portfolio and became a minister from 2007 to the present.
This jump from the union leader, from the union to the government, led to the confusion of roles, the mixture of interests and the fact that it is not clearly recognized who each space represents or what rights it defends.
Scarce trade union representation
When Grahovac abandoned the union hype to put on the suit of a provincial official, Carmen Nebreda replaced him until 2009, when she took office as a Kirchnerist deputy (question on the side: is being head of the teachers’ union worth climbing to personal political positions?).
She was succeeded, until today, by Juan Monserrat. According to information obtained by this means, in the last union elections (2019) the register of affiliates reached 42,187 teachers, but only 42% voted (approximately 17,700), and 69% of the voters (approximately 12,213) re-elected the Candidate for the celestial list. If we consider that the number of educators is 80,000, we can conclude that Juan Monserrat –who in 2023 will celebrate 14 years at the helm of the UEPC– represents barely 15% of provincial teachers.
This trade union underrepresentation; the massiveness, forcefulness and solidity shown by the “self-appointed teachers” in the claim for their rights postponed following 35 years of “representation” by the celestial list, and the devastating educational reality prompt me to make some bold statements: the guild does not they are “the teachers”; It is detrimental that the government and the trade union leadership are mixed up; Durability in power is harmful, and it is imperative to put each one back in his gondola.
On the one hand, a representative union is necessary; that is to say, with the majority of the teachers contained and that retakes its previously transcribed axiom.
On the other hand, a government is necessary whose objective, as the law says, is to achieve the highest levels of educational quality and that, consequently, designates as minister of that portfolio a person who can guarantee compliance with the right to education. in conditions of equality, that respects the rights of teachers without union submission and that listens to all the voices of the educational community.
For months the discussion has focused on salaries, retirements, sectoral interests, party struggles, electoral times. But few speak of education as the human right that is being trampled, nor of the million students who are being held hostage in a power dispute in which, despite being outsiders, they are the main victims.
The invitation is for us to jointly think regarding the future from the present. And for this it is essential that the government, union, families, teachers, managers and society in general, respecting their own roles and prerogatives, work on the same objective: to give priority to education.
* President of the civil association Families for Education Córdoba
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