Honduran students oppose privatization of schools
Diario Tiempo photo
With teachers’ support, students occupy schools in response to proposed reforms
[Translations of four articles from Diario Tiempo of San Pedro Sula and El Heraldo of Tegucigalpa, for August 6, 7, 8 and 9. See originals here, here, here and here.]
Diario Tiempo, August 9
Police continue removing students from occupied schools
Tegucigalpa – Hundreds of Honduran police on Tuesday removed groups of high-school students who were occupying some ten schools in different departments of the country in opposition to what they consider a proposal for privatizing education, a police source reports.
“We have recovered eight institutions so that children in the capital can go to class,” declared police commissioner and coordinator of the operation, René Maradiaga, in an interview broadcast on ABC. “We have detained 48 people,” who were taken to police headquarters in the capital.
Maradiaga stated that in cities like San Pedro Sula and La Lima, in the northern region, authorities also took control of schools. According to education officials, a total of 151 schools had been occupied by the students at times over the past few weeks.
- Diario Tiempo photo
The students and a broad sector of teachers reject a bill offered by the Porfirio Lobo government, of which few details are known, which they believe is an attempt to privatize education. In Honduras close to 60,000 teachers instruct two million students at the basic, primary and secondary levels, and there are complaints from diverse sectors who consider the education to be of poor quality.
The president of congress, Juan Orlando Hernández, defended the bill, declaring that “public education should not be synonymous with lower quality teaching” than private education and that “this is the aim of the struggle: free education for everyone who wants it and quality education.”
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Diario Tiempo, August 8
Specter of privatization divides government, students and teachers
Tegucigalpa – The subject of the reform of the public education system being proposed by sectors interested in revolutionaizing free education has divided all the actors, especially those who see in the proposal the specter of privatization.
The teaching sector holds that the most relevant point of the bill is that free education will be transferred gradually into private hands; the government, on the other hand, says that what is being sought is to change the obsolete basis the system depends on so that students can strengthen their knowledge and compete at higher levels.
After the breakdown of negotiations, on several topics, between the government and the teaching sector, the former announced that as a result of not reaching agreement the matter remains in the hands of the legislative branch, who will be sent a package of laws. As of last Friday, the group of laws had not been entered officially with the secretariat of the legislative branch, much less the proposal related to education, legislators and congressional advisors confirmed…
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El Heraldo, August 7
Teachers back striking students
National congress demands punishment for those behind the school occupations
Leaders if the teachers’ movement today backed the occupations of schools being carried out by groups of students in Tegucigalpa and San Pedro Sula in opposition to a proposed General Law on Education and the presumed privatization of the education system.
On radio programs on Sunday, the teachers urged the students “not to give up” after the secretariat of education announced on Monday that, together with the secretariat of human rights, the schools being occupied in Honduras would be retaken.
“Congratulations for this movement, student friends… These actions should have the support of the Federación de Organizaciones Magisteriales,” said Edwin Oliva, president of Colprosumah [Colegio Profesional Superación Magisterial Hondureño]…
El Heraldo confirmed on Sunday that the principle schools in the capital were still occupied by students despite warnings by the government that they would initiate evictions in order to guarantee the immediate normalization of the teaching process…
Luis Berrios, president of the congressional education commission asked the government for “punishment” for those behind the occupations of the different teaching facilities in Honduras…
Berrios stated that it is urgent to take measures to guarantee the normal functining of classes in the country.
“It is important to investigate and to sanction immediately those persons who are influencing the students and those students who are in reality making these decisions,” the legislator asserted…
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Diario Tiempo, August 6
Students skip meeting with minister of education
Tegucigalpa – High-school students yesterday stood up Minister of Education Alejandro Ventura by not showing up at a meeting planned for seeking a solution to the occupation of schools, from which they will be evicted on Monday.
The meeting was to have included representatives of the Federaciones de Estuduantes, together with the vice Minister of Justice and Human Rights, Lolys María Salas, and officials from the ministry of Education.
The students instead held an assembly at the Colegio de Profesores de Educación Media de Honduras (COPEMH) at which they stated their position of continuing the occupations of the schools despite threats of eviction on the part of education authorities.
Faced with the students’ refusal to hold a dialogue with the minister of education, the evictions will take place, although they will be overseen by officials from the ministry of human rights, vice minister Salas stated in a press conference.
The students, who are occupying around 60 schools in the country, are demanding of the government and legislators that a bill on the General Law on Education be withdrawn because, they say, it will change some of their careers of study…
Tags: Alejandro Ventura, educational reform, Edwin Oliva, Honduras, privatization, school occupations, student protests