Chile: Mario Aguilar returns to the presidency of the Teachers’ College calling on the government to fulfill its commitments.

In his first speech as the new National President of the Chilean Teachers’ Association, Mario Aguilar called on the government to fulfill its commitments to education.

The union leader denounced that “once again the Government has failed in its commitment to resolve the Historical Debt, reminding that it should send a Bill last December and that was not fulfilled. In this line, we will demand to schedule a meeting as soon as possible to move forward resolutely on this issue”.

The National President of COLPROCH reminded the Government of another of its commitments, “another issue is that of the Mention of our colleagues in Early Childhood and Differential Education, hateful discrimination that must be solved and which was also committed by the Government”.

Another of the points that Mario Aguilar will take up in his administration is the teaching career, which in his opinion “needs fundamental changes, the current system has lost all credibility, it does not take into account the reality of the teaching profession, it does not generate the right incentives for good professional development. Closely related to this is the issue of work overload, which is a reality, not an invention, excessive work overload generates high levels of stress and work-related illnesses, which affects not only teachers but also our students.

The union leader added that the new Board will also address School Violence and Coexistence, the serious problems of Public Education, especially the Sleps, which must be recognized as failing, and the decision must be taken to make structural changes to a system that has not been up to the task”.

Mario Aguilar announced that “we will continue to raise our demand to overcome the narrow and poor standardized education and move towards an education that promotes true human development, broad, inclusive and integral. I know that the task will be complex and difficult; today there are many problems affecting our teaching profession and Chilean education”.

Finally, the President of the Teachers’ Association stated that “our main goal must be to recover the force and credibility of our organization, a strong, organised and credible union is a necessary condition to advance solutions to our demands”.