Days before the voracious fires broke out in the Valparaíso Region, which ended the lives of 133 people, DC Senator Yasna Provoste had issued a warning call about the reactivation of an important political-educational conflict that took over the agenda on second semester of 2023: the crisis of the Atacama Schools and the evident abandonment of the State.
The parliamentarian raised her voice to accuse the slowness with which the government faced the problem, and aimed her darts at the Undersecretary of Education, Alejandra Arratia, whom she accused of acting with “pure poetry” without concrete actions.
“One of the fundamental issues in the educational reactivation plan, which is even prior to the commitment we signed, was the school transportation program and we have heard pure poetry from the undersecretary. When you say where they are, what communes, there is nothing. The same in terms of infrastructure. “I would say that there is only one concrete advance, which is the entry of a bill that was compromised regarding unsatisfied demands,” the senator told Ex-Ante.
Now, this conflict that the senator anticipated at the beginning of February, added a new chapter that confirms that the issue of education will be one of the first conflicts that the Government will have to face, after President Boric’s return from vacation, estimated for the last week of February.
It is worth remembering that the educational crisis in the Atacama Region burst on the side of the Local Public Education Services (SLEP). For the discussion of the 2024 budget law, a protocol of agreement was signed with the Senate Education Commission. During this weekend, the criticism of the Teachers’ Association and the directors of Atacama was heard again, ensuring that the schools in charge of the Local Education Services have not had the progress promised by the Government in infrastructure.
It was in November of last year when the College of Teachers lifted the mobilization that lasted more than 80 days, after the Ministry and Undersecretariat of Education promised medium and long-term reparations.
According The Mercury, The union recalls that the Ministry assured that the delay is due to the fact that the new Seremi of Education, Pablo Selles, and the alternate executive director of the SLEP of Atacama, Cecilia Brito, had just assumed their positions in February of this year.
The president of the College of Teachers, Mario Aguilar, however, went further and assured that there has been no progress even in the minimum enabling conditions.
The Local Public Education Service of Atacama is in charge of 60 educational establishments and 19 kindergartens.
The deputy executive director of the Atacama SLEP, Cecilia Brito, stated that priorities have been changing due to thefts, but that maintenance should be ready before returning to school.
