Ricardo Braginski
11/20/2020 17:02
Clarín.com
Society
Updated 11/20/2020 17:08
The Buenos Aires Minister of Education Soledad Acuña has just sent a letter to the teachers of the district with the intention of
clarifying the statements she made
in the framework of a videoconference with the deputy Fernando Iglesias and that raised a strong controversy this week.
One of the concepts that generated the most debate in that conversation was the criticism of teachers who
"choose the military instead of teaching" and
the call for parents to
"report" situations of "indoctrination" in the classroom.
In today's letter, Acuña
strongly confirms this idea.
“I know, and we have talked about it so many times, that we defend the classroom as that place to train, learn and reflect in an environment where all ideas and beliefs are respected,
without partisan militancy.
Of no party
.
We also know that some leaders abuse their teaching role and
choose to indoctrinate rather than teach to think.
In case it is necessary to clarify it,
I am going to stand firm: with the boys, no
”,
he tells the teachers
.
Other points of the statements known this week that had generated controversy were those related
to teacher training
, and especially to the description of the
profile of the people who choose the profession
.
Acuña had said that they are
older and older people
, who choose the teaching career as a third or fourth option after having failed in other careers.
And that they are
from the lowest socioeconomic sectors
.
“As you know, teacher training has been and is our priority. For this reason, in recent years we have
increased the number of in-service training hours from 20 to 100 hours per year.
In turn, more than 20,000 of you participate each year in instances of
situated training.
We are going to continue in the same direction, supporting continuous improvements in the degree, ”he
says in the letter that is currently reaching the mailboxes of the Buenos Aires teachers.
And then clarifies the question of the profile of teachers.
“There are facts about the reality that
I choose not to hide and work to transform them
: according to the survey of new entrants to the teacher training system in the City of May this year, only 14% do so after finishing their secondary studies, while the 52% have previous educational backgrounds.
Almost 50% work while studying, and it takes an average of 7 years to graduate.
Similar data emerge for the rest of the country in the report produced by the Enseñar evaluations, by the Ministry of Education of the Nation ”
.
“The figures are
difficult, uncomfortable, we all know them and we can see them reflected in our day to day,
in different situations, beyond the numbers.
They are realities that we talk about every time we meet and about which we still owe ourselves a deep debate with all sectors ", he
also adds, while saying that the commitment of his management is to support teachers and
" accompany them all in their initial and continuous training so that they can carry out their task with the appropriate professional knowledge and tools ”.
"The creation of the City University and the evaluation work and improvement processes with the Teacher Training Institutes are an important part of that decision," he
says.
Although the conversation between Acuña and Iglesias took place at the beginning of the month, the video began to circulate this Monday morning and generated a strong controversy, first on social networks and then on the mass media.
After the visibility of the controversy, leaders of the ruling party and the teachers' union, such as Roberto Baradel, asked Minister Acuña
to "apologize to the teachers" and also to resign.
National Education Minister Nicolás Trotta said that Acuña's statements are
"extremely unfair and incoherent,
at a time when the entire teaching community has displayed enormous commitment in an exceptional year."