 |
| Parents, Authorities, Teachers Remain in Discussion (Photo: Óscar Rodríguez) |
Oaxaca • Today Oaxaca will begin educational activities in a scenario that includes confrontations between teachers of Section 22 and parents in at least eight municipalities. The state government identified only those eight hot spots, but the Human Rights Ombudsman issued an alert for fifteen municipalities, and Section 59 of the SNTE [National Union of Education Workers], whose members replaced striking teachers, identified thirty.
So far there is no signed agreement, only a verbal commitment, between the teachers and parents on a scheme that allows recovery of the 39 lost days of classes.
A tripartite commission, headed by officials of the Secretariat of Government, the State Institute of Education (IEEPO) and Section 22, located hotspots in 42 schools in eight municipalities, the majority in the area of the Central Valleys. There, the state government recommended to Section 22 teachers that faced with the refusal of parents to accept them, they prevent violence by not showing up, leaving it to the authorities to resolve the conflict.
Further, with the return of Section 22, the government will release one of the three retained [semi-monthly] pay-periods, which involves an outlay of 350 million pesos [almost 27 million USD].
The internal meetings between parents, municipal authorities and striking teachers determined the school calendars, the majority without signed agreements. Section 22 left open the possibility of leaving the classroom if a national strike is approved and, in that event, leaving a substitute teacher in order never to leave the children without classes.
In most municipalities, the agreements are made in community assemblies, since of the 570 municipalities, 419 are governed by the [indigenous] system of traditional uses and customs.
"It's from the assemblies that the parents are proposing a Plan B so the schools are not left without educational staff," explained Victor Manuel Hernández, president of the Miguel Mendez School in Tlalixtac de Cabrera.The approved school calendar aims to replace the lost 39 school days by moving teachers' technical council meetings from Friday to Saturday, keeping schools open on holidays which gives back the 140 hours without suspending Christmas and Easter holidays [school sessions are half a day of 3.5 hours].
In this context, delegation IEEPO DIII- 4, made up of 400 administrative workers, today announced that they will leave their jobs in order to move to Mexico City, which will suspend the processing of bureaucratic actions and the release of payments to suppliers.
The secretary general of Section 59, Joaquín Echeverría, demanded guarantees of security from the state government in the absence of precautionary measures from the Human Rights Ombudsman, arguing that if parents so choose, substitute teachers will remain in the classrooms.
The official opening ceremony will be in Villa de Zaachila, with the presence of the Director of Education, Manuel Iturribarría, and General Secretary of Section 22, Rubén Núñez, who at the conclusion of the event will return to Mexico City and to the encampment that they maintain at the Monument to the Revolution.
In Oaxaca there are 13,500 schools. Section 59 states that they provide service in 400, while others were reopened by parents with the help of Section 59 or "professionals," who mostly belong to the Union of Workers for Education (STE) headed by Carlos Jonguitud Carrillo.
Section 22 is made up of 76,000 teachers, Section 59 of SNTE has incorporated into its ranks 2,500, and the STE claims to have 800. Spanish original