Breathe
By Nurit Martínez
There is not even hope left; perhaps the only thing guaranteed is a ham cake for school recess. That is the panorama in basic education after the extinction of the National Commission for the Continuous Improvement of Education (Mejoredu), without anyone, absolutely no one, defending what this institution represented in its two decades of existence.
If, in spite of everything that organized civil society promoted to prevent the disappearance of the National Institute of Transparency, Access to Information and Protection of Personal Data (INAI), presidential reconsideration was not achieved, we can now understand what happened to the most technical institution of the educational system. Its president, Silvia Valle, and commissioner Etelvina Sandoval spent the last few weeks looking for an accommodation in Mario Delgado's Ministry of Public Education.
The trend imposed by the previous government of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, of disregarding and being indifferent to specialist groups, continues in the beginning of the administration of President Claudia Sheinbaum on issues such as the disappearance of seven autonomous bodies and judicial reform.
Specialization and technical knowledge hinder them. However, in areas such as educational evaluation, it would be indispensable to deal with experts to know where to go or what to correct.
But that, it seems, doesn't matter; it's the least of it. Yes, we have already seen it. At least there was some hope at the beginning of this administration, but the disdain shown, together with the distribution of the legislative commissions in Congress, ratifies it.
For proof, a button: last October 30, Mejoredu shared on social networks that Silvia Valle and Etelvina Sandoval met with María de los Ángeles Ballesteros, president of the Education Commission of the Chamber of Deputies, to discuss "the normative specificity of Mejoredu and its contributions to the promotion of humanistic education." However, the focus was not on arguments about the relevance of the agency, which provides clear indicators on needs such as water, electricity, floors, roofs and educational quality through student examinations.
What was striking was that the legislator does not know anything about education. Before coming to Congress, her work was legal, in a Puebla branch of the well-known Tortas Locas Hipocampo. It is not known what capacities the Morena bench saw to put her at the head of budgetary and legislative decisions on education in Mexico.
What do they have in common to know about onion, tomato and bread suppliers to make better ham, milanesa, Spanish, Cuban or chorizo cakes, with knowing how many schools in Mexico do not have drinking water? Indeed, nothing. What knowledge about the elaboration of tortas locas can be applied when the legislator is presented with the mechanisms to improve the quality of education? Undoubtedly, there is little relation.
Better yet, with what arguments should the country's rectors come up with to prevent the budget cut to public universities from impacting research, innovation or technological development? I insist nothing, none, but such are the capacities that the legislative group has privileged. The payment of quotas over knowledge and this is what the legislator will face on a daily basis. Perhaps with the same face of surprise with which we were left when we read it, but in fact it will be translated into decisions.
Dear readers, excuse the irony, but how close is knowing the secrets of mad cakes to promoting Mexico as a country of scientific development, as is the desire of this presidential administration?
The educational agenda is crossed by the proposal of "austerity," improvisation and the political debts of the governing movement, which continues to place those with the greatest honesty, but with zero capabilities, in key areas of public management.
With the extinction of Mejoredu in the education sector, the question arose as to what will happen in the next 90 days, not only with the group of specialized technical researchers that Mexico managed to form in indicators and learning processes, but also with the role they will play within a heavy mammoth such as the SEP.
The ruling of Morena and its allies in the Chamber of Deputies, with 347 votes in favor, eliminates seven autonomous bodies: in addition to INAI, the Federal Economic Competition Commission (Cofece), the Federal Telecommunications Institute (IFT) and the energy regulatory bodies such as the CRE and the National Hydrocarbons Commission. This decision will have serious social repercussions.
The technical groups that illuminate social policy will be annihilated: those that verify whether the millionaire resources injected reach where they should reach and we have been able to verify in the results of the evaluations of organizations such as the National Council for the Evaluation of Social Development Policies (CONEVAL). If they have the impact they should have or if they duplicate efforts in their operation. These were Coneval's tasks.
For this reason, the Morenismo sought to do away with these institutions, because they were spaces where social researchers reviewed the flow of bureaucratic intervention in the delivery of resources to the "good people".
In the case of Mejoredu, the indifference of those who headed the institution during the Lopezobrador administration has left the future of education in Mexico plagued by occurrences and improvisations.
The only thing left is to hope that, at least, the Secretary of Public Education and the Chamber of Deputies can talk about the regulation of food in schools. But education will be difficult. Sara García and Joaquín Pardavé would be happy to hear that, in the center of the schools, a clear shout will be heard: "¡Acá las tortas!
The opinions expressed are the responsibility of the authors and are absolutely independent of the position and editorial line of the company. Opinion 51.
Comments ()