The government met this Tuesday with university authorities grouped in the National Interuniversity Council (CIN) to dialogue after the massive educational march on April 23, although there were no “immediate concrete results” that resolve the pressing conflict in the financing of the study houses.
“We value the call,” reported the CIN through a press release after the meeting with the Minister of Human Capital, Sandra Pettovello, and the Secretary of Education, Carlos Torrendell. “We are making progress in the dialogue, but without immediate concrete results, and we continue to struggle for solutions in the short term”he detailed.
Furthermore, from the Interuniversity Council they argued: “The increase in operating expenses of 70 percent for the March operating expense quota and a potential new increase of 70 percent for May, which will be collected in June, mean an increase in the 105 percent. This is an incentive, but insufficient to solve the current problems.”.
Authoritarians don’t like this
The practice of professional and critical journalism is a fundamental pillar of democracy. That is why it bothers those who believe they are the owners of the truth.
According to what they indicated, the university rectors raised for the first time before Pettovello, – but it is “the same proposal that we have been making since January 2024” – about “the need to recover the 50 percent that has been lost in university investment”.
“The CIN authorities presented each point of the founding demands of the historic march in support of the public university. This means recovering student scholarships, teaching and non-teaching salaries and addressing the budgetary issue (operation, hospitals, unpaid resolutions, works, crisis of the science and technology system and other points of interest),” they stated.
In turn, they pointed out that everything reported by the government at the meeting “will be quickly transferred to the CIN Executive Committee for analysis.” “We hope that the path of dialogue, collaborative work and respect, far from disqualification and defamation, will allow us to resolve the current problems. to guarantee the essential conditions for the functioning of the universities and the proper fulfillment of their tasks,” they highlighted from the National Interuniversity Council.
Deputies: in a marathon 30-hour session, the Bases Law and the fiscal package with the return of Profits were approved
Emiliano Yacobitti, vice-rector of the UBA, gave an interview this Tuesday night in which he acknowledged that the meeting with Pettovello was “positive” and that “it is time to sit down and talk.” However, he claimed that “the government has to understand that if the claim was genuine, because society wants universities to remain open, That cannot be resolved by changing the interlocutors.”.
“They have to resolve the claim that was being raised; a joint statement could not be released from that meeting. The only thing the government did was receive the proposals. It seems to me that you have to quickly decide if you are going to solve it or not, because the universities are putting together their schedules for the next semester and that depends on whether they will have funds or not,” he concluded.
Sandra Pettovello’s position: “Education for us is fundamental”
After another meeting held on Monday between the Minister of Human Capital, Sandra Pettovello, the Secretary of Education, Carlos Torrendell, and the rector of the UBA, Ricardo Gelpi, the national official stated: “Never since Libertad Avanza or the Ministry of Human Capital was it communicated that the public university was going to be closed or defunded”.
“Education for us is essential, that is why the president adhered to the commitment of Argentines for Education when he was still campaigning. From the government we strongly support public education (both state and private management). But what we also seek is the efficient use of resourcesThat’s why we protect taxpayers’ money to support education,” Pettovello explained.
Then, he suggested that “optimal results will only be seen if that money is used to guarantee education and not partisan politics.” Finally, he said: “The university march did not change anything in the relationship or dialogue that we had been having with the rectors. As we already stated, The funds had been transferred the day before and the opposition political march still took place.”. Human Capital hides behind having deposited a 70% increase in operating expenses to universities, but it is less than 10% of the total expenses they require.
ML / Gi