A major protest hit streets across Colombia Thursday, as teachers and students united to oppose working and studying conditions.
In second city Medellin, it was a carnival atmosphere, as a sea of multicolored banners and umbrellas was led by a troop of music playing clowns who offered tandem bike rides to protesters and spectators.
But beneath the smiles serious issues brew, as educational professionals oppose recent changes to their healthcare arrangements and working hours, while the issue of overcrowding in schools is also on the agenda of students and teachers alike.
Jaime Montaya, secretary of teacher’s union ADIDA, outlined how new health contracts, in which medical companies with no experience of providing care for teachers had been contracted and prepaid, could prove dangerous. Additionally, a proposal to extend the school day by half an hour was an attempt by the government to “rationalize spending.” Furthermore, a new teaching statute threatened to take away teachers’ rights, and finally, teachers and students had to fight the growing threat of the “privatisation of education by mega-college investment.”
Montaya said, “In order that education is a fundamental right and it gets the necessary budget, we are saying it has to get 7% of [the government’s] total budget — not just to cover primary and secondary education but also university education.”
According to Montoya, the government was trying to impoverish education and the quality of schools was going to suffer. “We have worked hard to combat this problem. People have to make an effort for public education.”
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