?I don't know if education can save us, but I don't know of anything better,?
? Jorge Luis Borges.
Listen to this note:
It seems that only when the results of the annual international evaluation tests are revealed - which constantly conclude the very poor level of Peruvian education - is it only there that the reappearance of our concern about the problem of our education takes shape. At the same time, the government, social leaders and authorities, due to the same circumstances, also begin to put forward some change projects with certain populist and short-term reforms to amend or only mitigate, somewhat, the annoyance caused by the uncomfortable joint.
Going back and examining our history again, we can show that the course of education in Peru was contaminated for thousands of years by the stain of exclusion, a perverse bias based on discrimination based on race, ethnicity, social class or gender.
In pre-Hispanic times, education in the Inca and pre-Inca civilizations was not seen as an important element in the development of the people since it was almost exclusively directed towards the aristocratic sector of the population.
Education, therefore, was almost solely directed towards a military, religious or court elite. Later, during the times of the viceroyalty, a new culture was designed with a clear affinity with the new political-colonial organization that was being imposed, an education related to the also elitist character, rejecting absolutely all development of indigenous knowledge and thus denying their intellectual capacity.
Later, during the first years of the republic, education remained directed, this time, towards the Creole elites, inequality and lack of inclusion persisting. From there, the same pattern continued during most of the Republican era without a long-term national education program, without a coherent educational policy and all this accompanied by a weak democratic system and the absence of a real separation of powers that further exacerbated the already existing problems.
At this time, the government through the legislative branch, which has reached a historical record in popular disapproval, has reversed the advances in education that had been achieved in recent years. One of them was "the Teacher Reform Law" which brought a series of changes to raise the level of teachers, one of which required teachers to be subjected to a series of tests and evaluations in order to continue practicing and which had the purpose of ensuring that all professionals in charge of educating minors are suitable for the position.
At the same time, the University Reform is also being violated, leaving behind the advances that had been achieved in higher education, cutting the powers of the National Superintendence of Education (Sunedu) and weakening its university accreditation system for the licensing of universities and opening the doors to the creation of universities without adequate infrastructure and with low educational quality.
All these setbacks are being directed, proven, by a kind of congressional mafias, many of them directly linked to the owners of lower-category higher institutes and universities, as well as by teachers' unions - most of them - who have failed in the evaluation exams. .
Part of the solution, I think, begins by getting more involved and putting into practice direct action to finally achieve an increase in the participation of the organized population and legitimate institutions, committing us all to promoting a better level of education, exercising our freedom, living together. and dialogue in a democratic, equitable, egalitarian and inclusive society, which ensures environmental sustainability and respect for diversity.
More from the author: Peru, pending problem, introduction
