Original article: Colegio de Profesores tras primera reunión con nueva ministra de Educación: «Nos dijo que ellos no están pensando en ajustes de dotación»

Teachers’ Union Discusses Budget Concerns with New Education Minister: «No Plans for Staffing Reductions»

Focusing on the impending budget adjustments and emphasizing that there can be no reduction of resources for the Chilean educational system, the Teachers’ Union held its first meeting with the new Minister of Education, María Arzola.

Following the meeting at the Mineduc offices in Santiago, national president of the union, Mario Aguilar, stated that while the meeting was primarily formal, they addressed critical issues such as budget cuts, retirement bonuses, historical debt, implementation of the Title Law, the reduction of bureaucratic burdens, and school violence, among others.

«We expressed our serious concern regarding the announced cuts affecting all services, including education, which we believe must not impact the school system in any way,» Aguilar emphasized.

The teacher leader further pointed out that this is a major worry, particularly as there have been suggestions that cost-saving measures could lead to staff reductions and larger class sizes, which he argued would cause substantial harm.

In this context, Aguilar explained that they presented statistics to the minister, demonstrating that Chile has the highest number of students per classroom among OECD countries. «Therefore, what we need to do is reduce class sizes, not increase them, as some announcements seem to suggest,» he affirmed.

In response, the representative of teachers remarked that the Minister stated, «this is not what is being considered; there have been some incorrect interpretations regarding that, and they are not contemplating staffing adjustments. We hope this is the case. We will be closely monitoring this because schools in Chile cannot afford further cuts; on the contrary, they need more resources, not less.»

«This is something we will continue to monitor closely, whether with the government or the parliament. We will press on and maintain a very firm stance: there cannot be a budget reduction for the operation of the school system. Absolutely not,» Aguilar emphasized.

Finally, the president of the Teachers’ Union reiterated that «we found the meeting to be positive, but we insist: we will remain vigilant about this budget adjustment that is being announced because our position as teachers is that there can be no budget cuts in education. On the contrary, efforts should be made to secure more funding for education, not less.»

The Citizen