Moreno announces the reopening of rural schools in Ecuador

Ecuadornews:

President Lenin Moreno announced on the night of this Wednesday, January 30, 2019, on the radio, actions to be carried out in the education sector.

Among them are the reopening of rural schools and the reduction of the administrative burden on teachers. In his message, the President said that “all rural schools” will be reopened as of next week. Although the chronogram is not known. Nor how many are there. Neither the Minister of Education, Milton Luna, has yet reported on this. The previous government -sayed Moreno- closed “thousands” of rural schools, with the objective that the children go to millennium schools.

However, factors that hindered access to these facilities, such as long distances and lack of transportation, were not taken into account. “There are children who walk long distances, most of the time in terrible conditions, to reach what were called millennium schools,” said Moreno.

In addition, he argued that poor households have to get out of their pockets for transportation so there were families who migrated to the cities to look for other options in the educational field.

Although until the administration of the previous minister, Fander Falconí, it was said that this Portfolio paid for the transportation of those children. “Many communities were emptied and as they often say: with the closure of the schools, the joy was gone,” said the President.

Additionally, the President ordered the Minister of Education to issue an agreement to reduce the bureaucratic burden on teachers – until last year there were 220,051 teachers in the education system. “It is from the community that the ‘Great National Agreement for Education’ is born today.

Only then will we achieve that the educational change of the country is long-term. Because we do not want an education that only informs, we want an education that forms, from home and school, with the media, walls and squares, theaters and museums, “concluded the President of the Republic. (I)

Source: https://www.elcomercio.com/actualidad/moreno-anuncia-reapertura-escuelas-rurales.html