From the National Union of Private Education Workers (Sintep) assured that there are four institutions that are in critical condition facing the possibility of closure, while there are two others “with high fragility” in the face of a crisis of private schools in Uruguay that increases as the cycle approaches. lecture.
The general secretary of Sintep, Sergio Sommaruga, commented on the situation of the private schools in the country that are going through a delicate situation.
In this context, last year the Ceija schools in Paso de la Arena, CEIC in Aires Puros and the New Zealand School in Carrasco Norte had to close their doors. On the other hand, the San Leonardo school in Ciudad de la Costa closed this year before the school year begins.
Meanwhile, Sommaruga commented that there is more institutions who are in a delicate situation. “There are four schools in this situation, two are in a very delicate situation. The union is trying together with actors from the schools themselves to ensure that they do not close. They are highly fragile, two institutions are of Montevideo”, said the leader on Radio Universal.
The Ministry’s proposal, a “slap of a drowning man”
Asked about the measure that the portfolio of Education and cultureregarding the possibility of merging the institutions to prevent them from closing, the leader assured that it does not seem correct and that a formal proposal was not presented either.
“It seems to me a drowning slap of the minister. It is a delicate topic to talk about fusion, the first thing there has to be is a study; What will the transition be like, which institution absorbs which, knowing if all the teachers remain working. None of this is written, we don’t know the proposal,” he said.
In that sense, he assured that “what the minister should have done was to prepare the proposal to convene and see what it looks like” and that he thinks that the Ministry “You play to look good in the public opinion.”
The measures proposed by the union
Faced with this problem, the leader assured that 75% of the private schools that close belong to neighborhoods of middle to low income. With this, he assured that the proposal from the union is the creation of a commission, that will operate from March, with the aim of bringing together the different chambers of the private schools and the government to analyze the critical situation they are going through.
On the other hand, Sommaruga indicated that greater requirements should be imposed for the opening of private educational institutions. “There should be more requirements. The educational project must be known in advance, and the pedagogical foundations must be developed and founded. Not anyone can open a school, they have to have institutional compliance strong,” he commented.
What is the crisis due to?
While since Uruguayan Association of Catholic Education (Audec) assured that it has to do with a question of birth rate, from the ANEP – although they do not deny that this is the main cause of the drop in enrollment – they estimate that there are also other issues to take into account.
“The tuition in the public has also fallen due to the drop in the birth rate. The percentage of 15%-17% that the private sector prefers has the same share of reduction that the public has,” said the ANEP counselor. Juan Gabito.
However, he also recalled that “there is an impact from the point of view economic in some types of families, and it also lies in the strength or not of the institutions.” On the other hand, he added that this phenomenon could also be explained by a shift from private schools to public schools due to a more varied offer.
“I think that the public offer has been improved in the sense of extend teaching timeand families prefer those institutions that receive students for more hours throughout the day,” estimated the ANEP counselor, although he ruled out that it has to do with a qualitative dimension since teachers are trained in the same places, their salaries They are similar and the educational programs and plans are the same.
For Gabito, it has to do with the “quality of the institution, as older containment, responsibility and immediacy in the answer” since a school where “there are three people to talk to is different than an institution like ANEP that has thousands of officials and many levels.”
Source: Ambito
