“We are facing a generation of illiterate people”: the educational tragedy that strikes Chubut

In Chubut, almost no one remembers a full week of classes. Most agree that there are 5 consecutive years of irregularity; some even talk about six. The truth is that school normality became an exception in the province. An exception so rare that it led to an unprecedented educational crisis.

In the last few hours, the Church spoke out on the “educational tragedy”. In a crude statement signed by the bishop of Comodoro Rivadavia, Monsignor Joaquín Gimeno Lahoz, his auxiliary bishop, Monsignor Roberto Álvarez, and the prelate bishop of Esquel, Monsignor José Slaby, mention that they are “facing a generation of semi-literate or illiterate” and call for “unprecedented actions” to get out of the shipwreck.

“We believe that if throughout the country one of the invisible consequences of the pandemic has been the deterioration in the education of our children, adolescents and young people, in our province of Chubut it is a real tragedy. For four years now - or more - that all those bands have not had a full year of face-to-face classes,” they warned.

Then they described the educational reality that they feel every day in dining rooms and lunchrooms: “Children in the last years of primary school who do not know how to take a pencil: not only do they not understand slogans but have serious difficulty reading and writing; they do not understand how to do the basic operations of mathematics”. And they said: “Teachers know that we are facing a generation of semi-literate and illiterate.”

Auxiliary Bishop Roberto Álvarez spoke with Infobae about the decision to express himself with such forcefulness about what they called “educational tragedy”. He explained that the statement came about because the crisis is “terminal” and day by day it is perceived more clearly. “Last year the fourth graders arrived with the homework sheets and asked us to read them to them,” he said.

“If we add to that the nutritional problems in children and the increase in situations of abuse that are not warned by the lack of schooling, the drama is huge,” he said. “We need a pact that involves all parties: government, unions, teachers and parents to have a normal year. Teachers are right in their claim, but they are realizing that stoppages do not solve anything. They're just ruining the kids' lives,” he added.

The conflict between the teaching unions and the government of Mariano Arcioni is long-standing. In 2019, four different ministers passed through the Chubutan Education portfolio to try to solve a battle that left the children without classes for 17 consecutive weeks. By 2020, it was planned to start recovering content, with support workshops outside school hours, but quarantine forced that attempt to be rescheduled. In 2021, the opening took longer than expected and, again, it was with strikes involved.

“We don't know what else to do anymore and I think the government doesn't know either,” said Julieta Siciliano, a reference for Organized Fathers Chubut. “They say they intend to guarantee 190 days of school, but in reality they can't even secure 100 days of school. The difference between public and private schools is abysmal. So much so that getting tuition in a private one is a titanic task, almost impossible, especially for lower-middle class parents,” he said.

The parents' collective was responsible for measuring school dropout in the province. They found that in 2020 the school year began with 32,637 fewer students than there were in 2018, according to official figures. The drop in enrolment is transversal at all levels (initial, primary and secondary). In 2021, the Ministry of Education stopped publishing updated data. Meanwhile, the children pass the course without accrediting apprenticeships, by decree.

Since last year, the government changed its actions in the face of a teacher stoppage. Now every day of absence is deducted from teachers' salaries, which according to parents ended up generating more measures of force. On March 2, the school year began with a 48-hour stoppage of Atech, the strong guild of the province, and Sadop who represents the private sector. On March 8, for Women's Day, there were no classes either. Yesterday, on the day of the education assistant, schools did not open either. Added to that is the loss of days due to building deficiencies, water cuts, gas leaks, inclement weather and a long etcérera.

Save yourself who can

The neglect of the leaders led to a “save himself who can”. The refuge that middle-class families find is private schools, which have multiplied in recent years. “Schools have been improvised anywhere,” they say. But they're still collapsed. They fail to meet the demand for vacancies.

Pierina lives in Comodoro Rivadavia, where she works as a bank employee. His son Santino (6) started primary school a few days ago. Since July 2021, the mother toured how many private schools in the area to find a vacancy. The answer was overwhelming: “There are no more places.” The alternative he thought was to write it down in School No. 1, one of the few establishments that maintain the teaching of classes despite the stoppages. There were no vacancies there either and he ended up in another public school.

“I do or do have to work. I need my son to be in school. So far this year there is unemployment for one thing or the other. If it's not a teacher's stoppage, it's a goalkeeping stoppage. They have only two goalkeepers, so attendance is alternated: one day he has first, second and third grade classes and the next he has fourth, fifth and sixth. At best, he goes to school every other day. Today I am looking for a private institution to attend every day accordingly,” said Perina.

Not all private schools are the same. In fact, teacher strikes are felt in many of them. Only in those institutions that do not receive state subsidies is school continuity guaranteed. There the quotas are higher and can reach 50 thousand pesos.

For Paula, Achilles's mother, private education is not a possibility. Your son is in sixth grade in a public school that he hasn't attended for a whole week for five years. “There is no education in Chubut. What is there is a dropper of content that the boys receive. Here education is a perfume and one of the most expensive”, he warned. “We don't have access to education. This year my baby finishes primary school and still doesn't know how to divide, it's hard for him to read well. He went from third grade to fifth grade without having taken fourth grade, without even receiving material. What education are we talking about? There is no education here.”

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