Montes de Oca City Council supports vote of censure against Education Secretary

The initiative was proposed by councillor Jorge Mora Portugues and supported by other councillors from different political parties.

The agreement requires the President of the Republic, Rodrigo Chávez, to immediately remove Muller from office. It also urges him to start a dialogue process to resolve the educational crisis, solve the problem of teaching staff salaries, comply with the constitutional provision of spending 8% of gross domestic product (GDP) on education, and respect the Special Fund for Higher Education (costs), according to the needs and forecasts of public universities.

In its reasons for supporting the motion, the City Council noted that “for years the Costa Rican education system has been suffering from a serious crisis, which was further exacerbated by the pandemic; since then, the situation has only been deepening, without the current government offering a solution.”

In addition, he criticized the so-called “educational line” announced by Mueller and Chavez two years ago, which has not yet been submitted to the state; its content, progress or degree of implementation are unclear.

The text stressed that the country “has not yet emerged from the educational pause caused by the pandemic” and condemned the increase in dropout rates, the deterioration of educational infrastructure and delays in educational courses.

Another reason is the failure to comply with the constitutional provision of 8% of GDP for education. The budget approved by the Chavez government for 2024 is only 5.2%, the lowest level in the past 10 years. In addition, the budget for 2025 is expected to be cut by 65 billion pounds, which, according to the motion, will affect the right of thousands of young people to receive a quality public education, weaken bilingual programs, paralyze academic equality programs, and worsen the national economy. Standardized tests, educational infrastructure, and computer science and robotics education programs.

drop out

The motion also highlights more than 60,000 complaints filed by more than 37,000 teachers over pay issues that Mueller has apparently refused to resolve. That represents more than 42 percent of the total number of teachers with unresolved pay issues.

Another reason for the debate is that the dropout rate will increase by almost 2% in 2024 compared to the previous year, which means that there will be about 20,000 fewer young people in the classroom. In addition, more than 70,000 scholarships and subsidies will be cancelled in 2023.

Finally, it was mentioned that the Ombudsman’s Office summoned the Minister to report to the agency, but Mueller refused to appear.

been: The Minister of Education came to the defense of the residents: “She did not take responsibility”