Carlos Greco, rector of the National University of San Martín, said this Wednesday that
they do not even have money to "replace the toilet paper in the bathrooms"
of the establishment due to the little money that is allocated to public universities with the government of Javier Milei.
"There is a situation that has arisen since this government begins to define its fiscal policy, based on an extended budget, which is a budget that
does not express public policies because there is no law
. A budget law expresses the government's plans with resources. and this government does not have a budget," criticized Greco, who is also president of the national interuniversity council, in dialogue with
Futurock
.
According to their point of view, "not having a budget in a situation of high inflation means high discretion, it means that the items it has are resolved without a legal mandate" and that beyond the critical situation that universities are going through, they want to know "what policies the Government has regarding education.
"Working to train a graduate, working to generate new knowledge, research, a vaccine takes many years. Years of supporting a policy that understands that knowledge is what makes a country develop. If we are not clear about that, then the The consequence is that we
have an item for operating expenses that was formulated in September 2022.
We have a quarter of what we should have to pay for electricity, gas, laboratory supplies, security, cleaning, teaching, then that situation is almost unsustainable," Greco emphasized.
And he also highlighted the loss of purchasing power of university teachers, due to a very low parity: "Salaries had the last parity agreement in December of last year based on November, then there was an inflation of 25% in December, 20% in January, 15% estimated in February, 70% accumulated and they had by decree a 16% recomposition. We have a 50% loss of purchasing power. That adds to the dignity of work."
"We understand the socioeconomic situation of the country, we are responsible, we accompany society in terms of being austere, rational and we try to cope with the situation as much as we can, reallocating items, reducing costs to a minimum. I don't want to be very prosaic, but
We are not replenishing the toilet paper in the bathrooms
, so there are situations that can be sustained up to a limit," he noted.
Greco's claim comes a few hours after teachers and non-teachers at public universities announced a strike for this Thursday, March 14, due to a "displacement by the national government towards the university partnership."
The University of San Martín, harmed by the lack of funds, according to its rector.
The measure of force was called by the University Union Front, made up of federations of workers in the sector from across the country, including FedUBA, CONADU and CONADU Historica, which bring together the affiliates of the University of Buenos Aires, in addition to FEDUN, FAGDU, UDA, CTERA and FATUN, with the endorsement of the CTA and CGT headquarters.
Regarding the relationship that the governing councils maintain with the Ministry of Education and the conflict they have due to the low funds they receive, Greco stated that the conversations were ongoing and even the Government committed to taking the situation to the Ministry of Economy. but that "evidently they have not been successful."
"When they took office, they asked to attend the executive committee meeting where the rectors of the public universities met and they expressed their willingness to dialogue, to talk, so did the undersecretary of university policies, we had meetings with them, they understood, they know that they are expenses items were very late and they promised to take that position to the Economy," he revealed.
In any case, he assured that they do not rule out that the situation could change and said that they hope for it because "it is necessary and essential."
This afternoon, presidential spokesperson
Manuel Adorni
was consulted at a press conference about the conflict with the universities and expressed: "
We are not against the educational budget
. We are against everything that is transferred to universities and we do not know exactly what what's happening".
"It was never in our mind to do something that harms education. We are committed to ensuring that they have a budget for them to study," he concluded.