Dialogue table between students and government, still smoke-free – Education – Life

While thousands of young people and teachers marched yesterday in the country's major cities, Education Minister María Victoria Angulo, and student spokespersons were again sitting at the table. negotiations to try to find a way out of the national strike that now lasts in 50 days. .

In this space, both parties raised their demands, but by the end of this edition, a solution had not been finalized yet.

The point of contention remains the financial resources. At a recent meeting, the Ministry of Education proposed to include in the national development plan the increase in the budget base of public universities, ie: the equivalent of the consumer price index ( CPI) plus 3.5%, for example. 2019; the CPI plus 4%, for the years 2020 and 2021, and in 2022, 4.5% above the CPI base.

Student calculations indicate that this means that higher education institutions would receive about 36 billion pesos during the quadrennium, depending on the budget base.. However, for university students, the offer is not enough. "What we demand exceeds one trillion pesos," said Andrés Gómez, student spokesperson.

In addition, student leaders point out that the national government has not submitted a firm proposal to correct the deficit this year, estimated at 500,000 million pesos.

President Ivan Duque baderted that the government had made an effort "to increase resources for public education" and had invited students to appreciate it. You must remember that Duque and rectors reached an agreement of 3.5 billion pesos for public universities over the next four years.

THE WEATHER