By: Abelardo Carro Nava
Teachers would not have to have another job, but neither would they have to go through the series of precariousness and abuses that educational or government authorities comment on “pro” of an educational or non-educational reform that, ultimately, violates their professional aspirations and quality of life. Such is the case of what is currently happening with the teachers who provided their professional services in the National Baccalaureate Service “Online Prepa” who, to finish soon, have been massively dismissed given the reform that, in this six-year term, was approved, with the purpose of regulating the outsourcing.
As it is known, “Prepa online” is an educational service that emerged in 2014 with the intention of providing a non-school modality, a virtual option, to those students who prove they have completed their studies at the secondary level; For this purpose, issued Agreement Number 09/09/14 establishing the curriculum of the National Online Baccalaureate Service, “Prepa online” and, in which it was specified that its curricular structure would be organized into 23 modules that allowed those who studied it to continue their higher education or enter the workplace (Agreement 09/09/14).
On this point, Rodolfo Tuirán and others wrote: “Online education has been considered a central tool and a harmonious complement to other educational modalities, as well as a viable alternative to provide access to quality education to millions of people. Perhaps for this reason, distance education has been perceived, above all, as a instrument of democratization and an alternative to face the enormous lags in access to education” (Tuirán, Limón and González, 2016). Democratization and alternative that is and seems viable, because in the face of the technological advances that globalization imposes, coupled with the precariousness of educational systems, such as ours, there is a demand for an educational offer that turns out to be necessary and indispensable to bring down those levels of lag, but also to offer other educational possibilities to the entire population. So necessary and indispensable that the self-appointed government of the Fourth TransformationDespite his antipathy with all “neoliberal” politics that has permeated our country, he has maintained it to this day.
True, at some point the Ministry of Public Education (SEP) subcontracted this service to an executive corporation or companies (which did not happen at the beginning of its operation) to which millionaire amounts were assigned so that they could cover, among other things, the fees of the personnel who worked under this scheme, but what responsibility did the professors who worked in it have so that the SEP had endorsed, at the time, this subcontracting? What responsibility did the professors have so that, under the scheme, the outsourcing, provide such services for several years? Wow, it is important to mention that, during those same years, these teachers did not receive their payment in a timely manner for the activity carried out for weeks or months, and well, of the benefits to which they could be better entitled, we do not speak: a complete precariousness.
Today, when things seem to have changed in the Mexican territory, because the promise of a transformation raised certain hopes in various sectors of society and education, overnight, as I have already said, hundreds of teachers will no longer be hired (wrongly called virtual advisors or school tutors) who for years provided their professional services in this National High School System. The reason? It is found in the reform that was approved in this six-year term and whose purpose is to regulate the aforementioned outsourcing. Reform that brought about modifications to 7 laws: the Federal Labor Law, the Social Security Law, the Law of the Institute of the National Housing Fund for Workers, the Federal Tax Code, the Income Tax Law, the Added Value, and Federal Law of Workers in the Service of the State, regulation of section B) of Article 123 of the Constitution. Reform that, in a few words, reaffirms that a worker can be treated with the tip of the foot when it is no longer necessary. Then, In the SEP they are, or not, neoliberal?
In this regard, I think that such a reform was required because, as we know, under the famous outsourcing, serious atrocities have been committed to the treasury, however, legislating without knowing the direct consequences that these modifications will bring to certain workers, is a major outrage, simply because it did not value the work carried out during the contracting periods prior to its implementation. Wasn’t Prepa online essential for thousands of students to continue their studies at a time when the pandemic was giving no respite? How was all the effort, dedication, commitment, ability and knowledge of hundreds of teachers who have accompanied the academic and professional training of those who enrolled in this high school system because they did not have the possibility of taking another path that would allow them to complete their studies, in other instances and under other modalities, due to various circumstances?
But there is more, why was a balance not made of the benefits that this National Service has brought to millions of students who have completed it? Why was the effects that these modifications to the personnel that, for many years, have worked in said Service and that have been fundamental for the achievement of the established purposes given the graduation of hundreds of students from this System? Why establish, overnight, a series of criteria that will not allow that education professional hired under this scheme to have another job when we know that the teachers’ salaries are not enough to cover their living and professional needs?
It is ridiculous that, from one moment to the next, a “Legislation” so that the personnel that will be hired in the future, do so under a fee scheme that certainly establishes a temporality, but also, a series of rights that may not be granted given the “austerity” measures imposed from above. These contracts should be reviewed, and if they set a specific schedule and if they establish the issuance of direct instructions for the performance of this work, then, if these two issues are considered, the law could well grant them certain rights. Anyway.
It was hoped that a government that calls itself humanist, could have a little sensitivity on this issue, or others, for example, the series of abuses constantly suffered by teachers who provide their services in the National English Program (PRONI) or in the Attention Centers for Students with Disabilities (CAED); services that, according to the 2022 curriculum proposal released by the Curriculum Development Directorate, will be essential for the achievement of educational purposes and for the “progress” that is discussed there.
Has so much changed for everything to remain the same?
The facts are there.
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