11/17/2020 12:56 PM
Clarín.com
Politics
Updated 11/17/2020 12:56 PM
After the Buenos Aires Minister of Education, Soledad Acuña, questioned the teachers who "choose the military instead of teaching" and asked to denounce the "indoctrination", criticism rained down on him from the opposition.
Leaders, officials and even teachers linked to Kirchnerism pointed to Acuña, defended the role of educators and even asked for his removal.
But no one noticed when then-president Cristina Kircher, now vice president, also had strong criticism of teachers and even blamed them for working "four hours" and having "three months of vacation."
It was on March 1, 2012, within the framework of the opening of ordinary sessions in Congress and in the midst of tense salary negotiations with teachers.
An energetic Cristina at that time was emphatic in criticizing the teachers for the strikes they made.
After saying that it was necessary to recognize "the incredible purchasing power that the salaries of the entire public sector and especially teachers had had" during his tenure, he added: "I am not saying that it is a panacea, I am not saying that they are perfect, but for workers who enjoy stability compared to the rest of the workers, for example, when the factory is not working, the blinds are closed and they are thrown out;
for the time they also have,
four hours compared to the mandatory eight-hour workday for any worker
, compared to luck also -because it was always like that and it is good that it should be- of three months of vacation compared to workers who have vacations much smaller. "
"With the effort we have made to equip our students with netbooks, how is it possible that every time we have to meet with their leaders we only have to talk about salaries and
we never have to talk about what happens to the kids who don't have classes?
This is what I want to change about the culture, "he highlighted then.
In addition, in that speech, he mentioned data about the evolution of
teachers' “witness” wages
and absenteeism.
His speech immediately generated a stir.
"The president's phrase was very unfair, it almost touched the grievance, it was an unfortunate phrase and a not very objective vision," said then the leader of the ruling CTA and today a national deputy for Unidad Ciudadana, Hugo Yasky, who this Monday repudiated the sayings of Acuña.
Days after the former President's speech, the five national teacher unions (CTERA, the Union of Argentine Teachers, the Union of Private Teachers, the Association of Technical Education Teachers and the Confederation of Argentine Educators) called for a national strike in 18 provinces of the country.
In another context, this Monday a strong controversy was unleashed after statements by the Minister of Education of the City were viralized on social networks, in which he pointed against teachers and called to "denounce" when acts of "indoctrination are reported " in the schools.
"The root of the over-ideologized and political militancy in the classroom is in teacher training, it is in how we teach what a teacher is, in the profile that is defined on what it is to be a teacher," Acuña said in a talk he had with the politician and journalist Fernando Iglesias, after which he was criticized from all sectors.
There, he stated that "the great discussion" on the subject "has to be how we teach to teach, because a teacher who learns well knows that he has to teach how to think, not say what to think."
That answer came after being asked "how to control indoctrination in schools."
JPE
Look also
Roberto Baradel also criticized Soledad Acuña and asked that she leave office
Nicolás Trotta crossed Soledad Acuña for criticizing teachers: "Extremely unfair and incoherent"