Liliana López

A Need for Consensus

The article ‘El Paro se Siente Fuerte y Hoy Marchan los Docentes’ in Clarín informs that teacher unions believe that the system of ‘Juntas de Clasificación Docente’ in the capital city will be threatened by Mayor Mauricio Macri’s project, because it may modify the conformation of ‘Juntas’ members. While teachers should retain their right of selecting suitable candidates for different educational posts, unions should welcome Macri’s proposal to modernise the system by means of technology. For this reason, the teachers in the capital city should not have precipitated to strike. Instead, both parties must negotiate peacefully to ensure that the essence of the ‘Juntas de Clasificación’ system remains the same.

Although some parts of Macri’s proposal are praiseworthy, it will not add transparency to the system as he claims in ‘Clarín’, because most of the teachers feel that it is already transparent. By way of testimony Norma, a teacher, affirms in ‘No Hay que Perjudicar y Dejar Tantos Alumnos sin Clases’ in ‘Crónica’ that in her 37 years’ service as a teacher, she never saw anything obscure in the ‘Juntas’selections. She states that every time she was selected by the ‘Juntas’ she never received political support from any teacher union. Therefore, she feels that ‘todo fue muy limpio, claro y transparente’. Moreover, In ‘Argumentos Contra la Avanzada PRO’ in ‘Página 12’, Carlos Oroz, a member of Ademys (one of the teacher’s unions), expresses that the ‘Juntas’ are the democratic organs that guarantee transparency in the designation of teachers.

Mariano Denegris, in the article of Clarín mentioned above, correctly states that only teachers can qualify for a nomination in the ‘Juntas’, and that they are suitable for selecting candidates. Therefore, the government must not designate them. Evidently, teachers are well acquainted with other teachers’ and students’ needs. Unions are convinced that the current system is effective in that the members of the ‘Juntas’ are all designated by the vote of teachers themselves. In ‘El PRO Contra el estatuto docente’ in ‘Buenos Aires.org’, the MP Laura García Tuñón emphasises that at present it is the teachers of the capital who vote the members that will conform the ‘Juntas’.

However, even when teachers are correct in rejecting the complete modification proposed by Macri, the project still has one positive element: the modernisation and bettering of the ‘Juntas’ system. In ‘Bullrich: "Dejan a 350 Mil Chicos sin Clase por una Cuestión Política Contra Macri” in ‘La Prensa’, Minister of Education Esteban Bullrich asserts that the current system was created when Internet did not exist. He adds that Macri is not eliminating the system, rather he is improving it to update it and modernie it to 21st Century technology. Thus, he sees no grounds to the teacher’s strike, and claims that with the help of technology there will be less delays in the ‘Juntas’ selections. Consequently, teachers will have more time to devote to leading their classes.

As long as the government of the capital city respects the teacher’s right to choose their own members in the ‘Juntas’, Mariano Denegris and the teachers should accept the technological modifications proposed by Macri, and try to negotiate without having to strike. The technological change will match the development of this century and will constitute a help for teacher’s educative missions.