The president of the Education area of the Bolivian Episcopal Conference (CEB), Monsignor Fernando Bascopé Müller, pointed out that the Catholic Church sees with “deep concern” the contents of the new curriculum that “does not prioritize educational quality” and that was defined unilaterally, in addition, it asked the Government to attend to the requests of society.
“The Catholic Church sees with deep concern that the contents of the new curricular mesh seriously compromise the few achievements, achievements and efforts made in the last two school administrations. We think that this curriculum does not prioritize educational quality and was defined unilaterally by not having the contribution and reflection of the institutions that work in education,” said the priest.
Bascopé, also auxiliary bishop of the Diocese of San Ignacio de Velasco, explained that another aspect that worries them is that the contents were prepared without “an adequate family, affective, emotional context” and this “only produces confusion and disorientation.”
“We are seriously concerned about the inclusion of topics that are specific to the internal jurisdiction of the family in the curricular contents, affecting fundamental rights, which, when treated without an adequate affective and emotional family context, only produce confusion and disorientation. This is the case of the contents of comprehensive sexual education present in all educational plans from preschool to secondary school”, warned the religious.
According to the CEB, the implementation of this content violates the responsibility and even the right of parents to educate their children on this subject.
The religious institution urged the authorities to listen and take into account the proposals or ideas of parents and teachers, in addition, it encouraged a critical sense, based on principles and values, not on ideological impositions outside the field of scientific education. and human.
“As a church we cannot remain only as observers of a process that affects families and society. In this way, we ask the Ministry of Education to review and attend to the requests that teachers and parents have already made,” Bascopé said.
Days ago, rural and urban teachers carried out marches and statements in rejection of the implementation of the new curricular mesh, these facts, according to the CEB, are a sign that this content “had not been well worked on.”
MARCHES
Despite the fact that the Minister of Education, Edgar Pary, assured that the curricular updating process was agreed upon with all the educational actors and that more than 50,000 teachers are trained in it, the leadership of the teachers assures that it was not like that.
“All the (government) ministers are known for being liars, for being impostors and for deceiving the population,” said the leader of the La Paz Urban Teacher Training Center, René Pardo, referring to the assertions of Minister Pary.
Last day, urban and rural teachers marched through downtown La Paz in rejection of the new curriculum that is intended to be implemented in this school administration. The sector requests that items be increased and specialized teachers be hired.
“The previous week there was a specialized departmental conference to deal with this problem of improvisation in the curriculum and that conference has rejected this increase in works, work, subjects and content, because they simply harm the student’s teaching-learning process, affecting to the fundamental basic subjects”, said Pardo.
He warned that if this measure is not lifted or a solution “even if precarious” is not given, the conflict will continue, despite the start of school work.
“The conflict continues despite the start of school work, there is no budget, there are no items, there are no specialized teachers, everything is charged to certain teachers who have to do multipurpose work and that does not benefit the students, it goes against the teaching-learning process”, indicated the leader.
For his part, the leader of the urban teachers of El Alto, Alex Morales, demanded that the Ministry of Education attend to the teachers’ position, since “the curriculum of this Government is totally contrary to the interests of the country’s students. We have found different difficulties and deficiencies; It does not have pedagogical consistency, it is totally out of place in chronological time, that means that it is a total mess, we demand from the Minister of Education a greater number of hours paid by the State, with teachers with normal training to teach all the subjects that have raised”.
He pointed out that “a real curricular mesh” must be worked on, from the bases “with teachers and not with public officials.” In addition, he said that the return to classes is subject to the national conference of the urban teachers of Bolivia that will be on the 26th of this month, in the municipality of Villazón (Potosí).
The Vice Minister of Regular Education, Bartolomé Puma, in a press conference, stressed that the curriculum was systematized with proposals or presentations from autonomous universities, the Bolivian University Confederation, the National Board of Parents, the Student Confederation High School, the Ministry of Environment and Water and the Ministry of Justice Institutional Transparency, among others.
“There are many instances that have sent us proposals and we have systematized that with themselves to be able to also insert if appropriate,”
He assured that, in the first phase of training, in December 2022, 48,188 teachers were trained and in the second stage 54,714 teachers, “all in person”.
Church observes educational curriculum content and asks to hear the claims