It is common for President López Obrador to lash out at private companies. This August 19, however, he was surprising because he questioned the Center for Economic Research and Teaching, the CIDE, a public research and teaching institution, for preparing professionals of such good level that they can be hired by the private sector.
“I understand, well, that there is a school like the ITAM He said, “well, it’s fine, driven by the private sector to train its cadres, but that the State is also financing an institution with those same purposes, such as the CIDE, or that Conacyt is at the service of companies, that its budget is used to finance research of companies and not to do research for the benefit of people, that there are vaccines for Covid, as now, that non-polluting substances are sought or natural so as not to use chemicals in fertilization, in the fight against pests, or that there are no herbicides that cause damage to health, all that research? “
The CIDE It is a high-level study center that has earned a great international reputation. Like the Colegio de México, its purpose is to train specialized professionals who are among the best in the world.
Many are indeed hired by private companies, but others work in the public sector and serve at the highest levels of the public administration. The same is true, by the way, with graduates of large public universities such as the ONE, the IPN, the University of Guadalajara or the Autonomous University of Nuevo León.
The president, however, is bothered by the vision held by many of the graduates of these high-level institutions. That is why he cut the budgets of the CIDE and Conacyt, which grants scholarships to academics in Mexico and abroad. It is true that AMLO promotes new educational institutions, such as the Benito Juárez García Universities for Well-being, but with a very low academic level. On multiple occasions, he has indicated that he does not want officials with technical knowledge but those who have absolute loyalty. Public servants, he affirms, must have 90% honesty and 10% capacity.
Liberty
In all countries, however, there is room for high-level educational institutions, where the best specialists are trained, and others of a massive level. In France, for example, there are public schools with very open access, such as the Sorbonne in Paris, but also very strict institutions, such as the National School of Administration in Strasbourg, which train executives and top officials.
The same is true in the United Kingdom, where elite universities, such as Oxford and Cambridge, coexist with less demanding and higher enrollment institutions.
The president should not be upset if the quality of the CIDE it is so high that even the private sector hires its graduates. It benefits all of us. The companies are not enemies of the popular welfare or the government: they are the expression of economic activity and productive investment of Mexicans. Schools must prepare good professionals, but they must have the freedom to seek their best job options, whether in the public or private sector, depending on their desires or vocations. Punishing an institution for offering an education of such quality that its graduates can be hired by the private sector does not make sense.
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