Colombia: On strike against poor education
(("Education is not for sale" -- El Colombiano photo))
[Translation of an article from Página/12 of Buenos Aires for October 12. See original here.]
University leaders, inspired by the Chilean protests, warn that the educational reform reveals the privatizing spirit of the government of Juan Manuel Santos. The president claims the law is intended to improve the system.
By Katalina Vásquez Guzmán
Wearing leather shoes, because it’s a long walk, Kevin gets ready to march against the education reform that the Juan Manuel Santos administration is steering through Congress. Today workers and teachers will join students in the national strike to pressure the executive to give up the bill and to draw up a new proposal in conjunction with student groups and university leaders. The student federations that called on the more than 500,000 students in Colombian public universities to strike regard Santos’ reform as a threat, without consent. This would be one of the most important national protests since Álvaro Uribe’s successor assumed the presidency.
Kevin García of the Universidad del Valle believes “this reform is the expression of a neoliberal state, lacking in vision and foolhardy in performance, that demonstrates the marginal role the government has adopted in regard to the spread of knowledge and the education of its citizens.” Kevin, one of the millions of Colombians who can now become a professional thanks to public education, explains to Página/12 from Cali that by protesting he wants to express his discontent and to press for a response by the administration. The president, despite previous marches and long student strikes, like the one at the Universidad de Antioquia in Medellín that has been going on now for more than 30 days, has said that “even though there have been marches, even though some have come forth to criticize it,” the reform is going to be law and he has encouraged his minister of education to move forward with this “deep conviction” that it is the reform for both of them.
The government is attempting with the reform to increase the quota for access to public universities from 35 percent of the youth who graduate from high school to 50 percent. As proposed by the executive, the reform involves more resources for the universities. They say each new position would cost some 600,000 Colombian pesos (300 dollars), which has aroused suspicion about the quality of education for a professional at such a low cost. Santos has said that what he wants, far from lowering the quality of public education, is “to improve the quality so that these boys and girls who come out of the universities are better prepared to face life, to get a job.” What is sought is that after going through the university the graduates have been made into a qualified work force. In the opinion of some, like Kevin, this distorts the meaning of the university and turns it into technical training.
Last Monday, the proposal for reform of Law 30 was sent to Congress. In its first draft, the proposal contained an article to give “profit incentive” to public universities. Despite the fact that this wording was removed, most believe the privatizing spirit of the reform survives, as do changes that would move toward a detriment in quality. “From the outset, the reform reflects the government’s intention to distance itself from higher education. They do that because they do not believe in it; they see the country as a Third World nation that will supply raw material to the First. Nothing in the way of relevant knowledge or quality education. They are aiming for a reduced education, for workers in technical or industrial processes, turning their backs on the intellectual and developmental role of a university,” García explained to this newspaper as he readied better footwear for this day of marching.
He, like Eduardo Londoño, a student at the Universidad de Antioquia, believes in social protest as a right and a way of raising one’s voice. Londoño feels motivated by the current student movement in Chile. “I think it is a demonstration of how society can rise up and make demands,” says the law student, who has joined the many who post messages of encouragement on social networks to continue the strike. “Mexico: nine months on strike, and they have free education. Argentina: six months on strike and they have free education at all levels, from primary school through PhD. Chile: four months on strike and counting,” the students post on the internet, another forum for debate and disputes important to this confrontation. The web sites of the presidency, the ministries and universities like the Universidad de Antioquia were recently hacked by Anonymous as a show of rejection of the reform and of initiatives that, as in Medellín, attempted to prevent the real student strike, substituting a virtual consultation.
Kevin García raises his voice to announce that the march is beginning. He hopes that this reform does not succeed, so the public university can stay alive as “one of the few scenes for the development of critical thinking.”
Tags: Colombia, Eduardo Londono, educational reform, Juan Manuel Santos, Kevin Garcia, student strike, Universidad de Antioquia