"Less bullets, more education."   The wave of violence in the streets and jails, the worsening living conditions of families in Ecuador and the lack of decent jobs are debts of Guillermo Lasso, who will conclude 2022 as one of the Latin American presidents with the lowest approval in recent years.      www.expreso.ec

By María Josefina Arce 

The wave of violence in the streets and jails, the worsening living conditions of families in Ecuador and the lack of decent jobs are debts of Guillermo Lasso, who will conclude 2022 as one of the Latin American presidents with the lowest approval in recent years.

Education is another of the government's pending issues. According to union leaders of the sector, the Ecuadorian public education system is abandoned, as a result of the neoliberal policies of the authorities.

The future of hundreds of thousands of children and young people is at stake, since in order to comply with the draconian demands of the International Monetary Fund, reductions have been made in sensitive areas such as education.

Let's remember that the financial organization returned to the country under the hand of former President Lenín Moreno, after his predecessor Rafael Correa broke with the IMF and fought against the illegal debt.

Given the current situation, students from poor sectors have seen the possibility of getting out of poverty and therefore, of inserting themselves into the labor market reduced.

Throughout the year teachers and students have taken to the streets to defend public education and the allocation of a larger budget. Only in the first year of Lasso's mandate, which began in May 2021, the funds allocated to universities and polytechnic schools had a reduction of 113 million dollars.

The last mobilization took place in the last few days to denounce the lack of political will of the government, which has led to damages in the educational infrastructure, the allocation of quotas, scholarships and financial aid and caused the dismissal of teachers.

As a result, more than 200,000 children and adolescents throughout the South American country are out of school, because without a budget there is a lack of teachers in the classrooms, according to workers in the sector.

In addition, Lasso promised improvements to the system for the delivery of quotas for higher education, however, last May the authorities confirmed that about 90 thousand young people would be left this year without a quota to access a university or institute of higher education.

The demonstrators demanded the holding of competitions for new teachers to join the classrooms, an increase in teaching hours for students as recommended by international organizations and the payment of the salaries of 30,000 teachers according to the most recent legislation.

There are quite a few unfulfilled promises. The reality is that Lasso has deepened the application of neoliberalism, favoring privatizations and leaving aside the necessary social investment, which has resulted in greater inequality in Ecuador.