The Teachers
Association of the Republic of Panama (Asociacion de Profesores
de la Republica de Panama) fully identifies the national
problem
that’s expressed in the critical national educational
situation, the problems with the Social Security Fund, the
increase in public utility rates (most of all electricity), the
moral and ethical disturbance (that is, corruption) of the
governing class and the opposition as well as certain business
sectors, the lack of public safety and other factors that weigh
heavily in the national news, and we say to the citizenry that
this series of shortcomings is the product of the application
by
the national government of the anti-popular measures of savage
capitalism known as neo-liberalism.
The educational
problem includes situations such as the alteration of the
teacher selection process by functionaries in the Minister of
Education hierarchy, who violate the legal norms in order to
favor connections over excellence; the bribery that we have
noted at decision-making levels; the impunity that
characterizes
cases of mismanagement of funds by administrators at various
educational centers; the lack of attention to the school
buildings which puts at risk the lives of students, teachers
and
parents; the lack of resources and educational equipment (such
as for the Spanish laboratories) that impedes a truly
competitive, quality education; the failure to pay the salaries
of hundreds of teachers around the country on time; and the
cutbacks in nutrition programs for our school kids.
We denounce the
lack of interest that the Ministry of Education and the
Legislative Assembly have shown in using the 20 percent of
interest proceeds from the Fiduciary Fund that has been
designated and is needed to give economic support to our
schools, principally at the intermediate level. Also, the
distribution of the Educational Security Fund has undergone a
considerable and ill-intended delay.
The Ministry of
Education has failed to comply with such promises as the
provision of classroom furniture, salary adjustments, the
payment of 21 days in March for teachers who were appointed
this
year and the .03 percent for the costs of administration of the
retirement fund. They haven’t cared to deal with the cases
of student violence that have arisen recently. The competitions
for principals and supervisors have been notably delayed and
there still haven’t been any competitions for national
administrative posts. The Ministry of Education is in chaos.
The rules that
must guide the selection of the representatives on the
personnel
selection committees, the regional boards of education and the
community boards of education have been put off. In the
Ministry
of Education there’s this partisan knighthood that
agitates
against the solution of these problems because that would harm
their private interests, which have taken priority over the
national educational interest.
As a
teachers’ organization we have called the Ministry of
Education’s attention to these problems, and finding
ourselves in the last stages of this presidency, we still
haven’t been able to get them to attend to the educational
problems.
The business
sectors are digging in their heels to put an end to the Social
Security Fund so that the Panamanian people will fill their
coffers by using their expensive private hospitals. It’s
well know that private enterprise wants to take the
administration and resources of the Social Security Fund
programs in order to get rich on the Panamanians’ health,
and it’s necessary to redouble efforts to avoid that.
We say that the
economic problem that confronts some of the Social Security
Fund’s programs is a creeping one, much of the
responsibility for which belongs to the various successive
governments. This makes it necessary for the government to pay
the social debt and return the $2 billion dollars that belong
to
the Social Security Fund.
The current
administration of the country’s primary social institution
is in good hands --- Dr. Juan Jované inherited an
institution that had been drained by those who now want to give
us lessons in ethics and moral values. No criminal in a suit
and
tie is in jail or has served a sentence, for example, for the
housing program of yore.
In these
moments
the Panamanian people suffer in their own flesh from the wild
ambitions of neo-liberal policies, having to confront new
increases in the prices of basic services. The increase in
electric rates is going to once more hit the suffering
Panamanian people in their depleted pocketbooks. However, it
doesn’t seem to matter to anyone that the minimum wage for
the Panamanian worker is being debated in such a sea of
necessities. The basic family staples continue to go up in
price
to the point that they become unaffordable to the majority of
households, to the point that our young students don’t get
the minimum nutritional requirements.
We call an
alert
for public sector workers to be on the lookout for what could
happen to our annual salary adjustments. We can’t let the
international financial institutions attack workers’
salary
rights, and we invite the national government to think long and
hard before applying any of these international credit
organizations’ savage measures. On the contrary, we find
it
necessary to redouble the fight to rescue our special
retirement
plan.
The Teachers
Association of the Republic of Panama reiterates its call for
unity among the Panamanian people to eliminate the fatal neo-
liberal policies that in whatever national endeavor only bring
impoverishment to the people, the loss of social solidarity and
the destruction of people in the name of the people. Those
sorts
of effects are something that we have to avoid.
Also in this
section:
What they're saying about Saddam's weapons of mass
destruction
Girvan,
CARICOM
Carson, The mass firing in
Venezuela's oil industry
Electronic Frontier
Foundation, Music file sharing
Jackson, Impunity and
revolutionary justice
Reporters Without Borders,
Fidel's crackdown on journalists
Teachers Association of
the
Republic of Panama, Message to the Panamanian
People
Bernal, From Odio to
impunity
