The Minister of Education, Nicolás Cataldo, participated in an activity corresponding to the beginning of the school year called “Initial Bell”. In the instance took the opportunity to refer to the delay in the beginning of the academic year in the Atacama region: “In no case does it exceed a week, the establishments will be entering days after the official start.”
In this way, the head of the Mineduc lowered the pressure on the average, maintaining that, “in order not to make the matter more serious, because Many educational establishments throughout the country have deferred income for different reasons“.
Cataldo added that the date change is due to “very unfortunate situationsthe number of thefts and vandalisms that schools have suffered have been significant, for which resources have been redirected and the corresponding repairs have been made.”
Hunger strike
The board of directors of the Atacama Teachers’ Association joined a hunger strike in protest of the persistent problems in the region. In this regard, the Secretary of State He regretted the measure, since it puts people’s physical integrity at risk..
“We invite you to reevaluate that decision,” Cataldo called.
In addition, He added that this resolution occurred in the midst of dialogue spaces in which progress had already been made.. One of those advances was the signing of a $300 billion working agreement for the region, which would be divided into two areas.
Furthermore, he noted that in the quote “Different topics were raised that we closed, I myself made a proposal to meet during the afternoon in order to identify the times, deadlines, and amounts of both the medium and long-term work that is being carried out today.”
In this scenario, Cataldo He called on the teachers who adhered to the hunger strike to take evidence of what has happened and the agreements reached.
Anticommunism
As a member of the Communist Party, Nicolás Cataldo referred to the statements of President Gabriel Boric about the “visceral anti-communism” by the right in the context of the investigation of the kidnapping – resulting in homicide – of the former Venezuelan military officer, Ronald Ojeda.
The minister maintained: “I am not going to contradict the President, I also have the fortune, from my perspective by the way, of being a member of that party. Now, I am Minister of State and it is not my place to speak out in that capacity, only as Minister of State.”
Despite his position, the head of Mineduc himself clarified that he has experienced anti-communism, such was the occasion when he was appointed head of the portfolio and political sectors. They began to say that the students were going to be over-ideologized with readings of Marx and Lenin.
Given this, he stated that he hopes to end the vision of the Cold War, since “Chile is a democratic country, the Communist Party has contributed to the development of democracy in our country and I feel proud, obviously, of that. But without a doubt, the most important thing here is that we never lose the capacity for dialogue and the ability to cross the sidewalk as many times as necessary.”
