Constitutional Accusation against Minister of Education is Rejected

Wednesday July 12, 2023

The chamber of the Chamber of Deputies and Deputies rejected, by 78 votes against, the Constitutional Accusation against the Minister of Education, Marco Antonio Avilaafter the authority’s defense argued that this action did not meet the minimum legal thresholds for its application and that unfair accusations were made against it.

“I have never infringed the laws or the Constitution. I am a firm defender of democracy, the Constitution and the tools it contains to oversee and improve the actions of the authorities. But I am also certain that it is through constructive dialogue that the vast majority of those who participate in politics can move forward to improve the lives of hundreds and thousands of students, boys, girls, and young people,” said Minister Ávila after the vote.

The Secretary of State thanked the pro-government and opposition deputies who rejected the accusation, and especially thanked the deputies Hector Ulloa, Juan Santana and Tomás Hirschwho were members of the review commission, the deputy Viviana Delgado, and her defense attorney, Francisco Cox, who was in charge of demonstrating the inadmissibility of the libel.

But Minister Ávila also spoke to the opposition deputies who supported the accusation, pointing out that “I maintain my will to work together with all political sectors, as I have done up to now (…). The doors of the Ministry of Education will remain open for us to continue working, as we have done with many of them, to achieve these objectives, which are to improve the quality of education”.

“My call today, after this accusation, is to take care of the treatment in the political world, to respect each other beyond the differences, not to turn the fair differences between one another into personal attacks,” he added.

Priority in educational reactivation

After the rejection of the Constitutional Accusation, Minister Ávila warned that the work that is being done to reactivate education in the country must continue without pause.

“In this year and a half we have firmly dedicated ourselves to reactivating the educational system, to recover children from the classroom, to improve the school infrastructure, to improve the food service. That is why today, when we see that attendance is improving, we have to continue working, put aside small politics and work together for big politics, which is today to recover our educational system, ”he said.

The authority explained that there are currently 1,300 professionals who are deploying to reconnect students who have been excluded from formal education, and that more than 20,000 people have enrolled in the National Tutoring Plan to accompany students in the development of their literacy.

“It is not the time for smallness, it is the time for all of us to work together. We will continue working tirelessly. Today we must all put ourselves at the service of the educational system, so that each educational establishment, each educational center, nursery, kindergarten, school and high school, is a space for reception and well-being for all ”, concluded the minister.

Construction through dialogue

After the session, the Minister General Secretary of Government, camila vallejo, who said that “in politics, there is always room for improvement, and the possibility of improvement is when public policies and ministerial efforts are worked on and built through dialogue. And Minister Ávila has been a promoter and defender of dialogue in the Education commissions of both chambers, as well as in the educational communities”.

“One of the main public policies of the Ministry of Education has been the Educational Reactivation Plan, and that has brought tutors, it has brought professionals in a transversal national campaign to precisely face the problem of dropout and attendance,” he added.

And the Minister Secretary General of the Presidency, alvaro elizaldethanked the deputies who rejected the accusation, highlighting “the importance of democratic dialogue to advance a better education for Chile.”

“Unfortunately, constitutional accusations, even more so when they are unfounded, as in this case, distract us from the relevant effort, by encapsulating the political system, particularly the National Congress, in a debate that bears no relation to what is needed in our country. That is why the call we make is that this instrument be used prudently and responsibly”, he concluded.