The Presidential Veto and Higher Education: An Opportunity.

Last year in May, the President of the Republic vetoed “as a whole” the Act it creates Council of rectors of official universities in the countryrecently approved by National Assembly of Deputies, which became Law of the Republic no. 864 (see Francisco Paz’s note in the May 6, 2023 edition of this newspaper). The Assembly could still approve it by insisting, but in this forced pause it is convenient to reason about the Executive Power’s arguments.

This reflection exercise is necessary in order to overcome the timid proposals of the five rectors and try to cement the future of higher education in the country on a firmer foundation, among whose pitfalls are economic and financial topics, but equally serious failures in terms of coordination and management of a key system so that Panama can make a leap in quality in its future. Let’s see.

In his explanation of the veto Law President Cortizo argues three reasons: MEDUCA is an administrative body National education and therefore it cannot be accepted that a Rector’s choirwho sets the guidelines and policies of university education without prior approval TO RAISE; Second, the president believes that what was approved by the Assembly is unconstitutional, because with regard to the preparation of the budget and previous and subsequent controls, it is optional for the controller and the executive power, since the norm in question would imply that the previously mentioned Council would be the one to perform the subsequent controls costs of research, equipment, technology, laboratories and buildings for that purpose; and finally, that the adoption of laws on educational issues represents interference from the outside The Assembly of Deputies in Electoral Matters of the Executive Power because that would be the creation of an independent subject of public law with legal status, going beyond the approval of associations like the current one Rector’s choir (since 1997), a body that gathers rectors of official and private bodies.

It is not without arguments the verdict of President Cortiz and surely the rectors of the university must also agree to the new project that is born from the bosom of the Executive… And here is peace, and then glory, as the old people used to say. What is that yes electorally and politically it will be done, but it will only be an effort to ease the pains of a severe cancer.

It is public proof that it is TO HEAL barely, barely, it is enough to care – and very poorly – about pre-university education. With a population with a net schooling rate of 11 years; with very high failure and failure rates; with the widespread disapproval of applicants for admission to universities in order to increase the majority of those who take the examination for this purpose; with the last and deplorable place we occupy in the international test rankings of mathematics, science and reading comprehension; it’s a little less than impossible TO HEAL attend with minimal decorum third level of education. This is reality. They would have to create a deputy ministry, and supply it with appropriate personnel, which would have caused monstrous and stagnant growth anyway. RAISE. The shots don’t go there.

we need a new one Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Technology which is capable of guaranteeing the coherence and management of the higher education system, which is tertiary training (professional and scientific), but also research, innovation and the socio-productive transformation that Panama needs in the world of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

We need an entity that deeply understands the world we live in, with a perspective and leadership capacity that enables the articulation of the country’s actions with a ministerial rank and in accordance with the tasks that society expects from its public universities, beyond the school functions that are mainly served by the Panamanian elite.

certainly a Association of rectors of official universities It is necessary to start laying the foundation a Prospective strategy of higher educationResearch and innovation with 10-year plans and multi-year funding, which avoids the political “game” of budget allocations, separated from the hard reality of the number of students, teachers, research that has been carried out and will be carried out, social articulation in communities and territories, and so on long etc. which have to consider the question of financing.

Yes, we need a plan that tells us where the universities are going and coordinates our actions, and once and for all stops the bleeding of 5 or 7 rectors who earn the same while some manage 100, 50 or 3000 students. ; and that apparatus of the vice-chancellor’s office and the dean’s office that mismanage taxpayers’ money, by multiplying and monitoring offers; crazy competition for students especially in prostration; creating extensions and university centers that are meters away from each other, and long, etc., where there are no fewer than 5 chairs serving 5 students and others that are saturated with more than 50. Quality, relevant and effective education is not possible with these evils.

In part, the reasons for this situation have been inertia and a dispute over who best serves the executive or, more recently, Assembly. Easy quid pro quo of teacher positions for budget allocations, from which neither previous nor subsequent control saved us. Largely thanks to the morale of the students themselves, who, since the return to democracy, have kindly given up financial autonomy, and with it the power of true support for academic freedom and university autonomy. They are the MEF and the controller who became managers of state studio houses, without the knowledge and expertise to do so. Instead, they operate under the cover of childish economism or neoliberal technocracy that assumes cost-cutting as its main tool and its redistribution from year to year, in accordance with an intra-university electoral and national political agenda.

We need a Association of rectors of official universities, perhaps modeled on an existing entity in our neighboring Costa Rica and other places outside the region, which helps form inter-university careers; inter-university chairs; national tenders for state seats and a series of measures that make us more competitive and efficient. The said body could be an advisory or directive body within the structure of the ministry that we believe should be established.

We need an entity that allows the aforementioned research item to exist in the general budget of the official universities, which implies the investment of an amount equivalent to at least 10% of that budget; with State tender for infrastructure and equipment projects from the universities themselves, ruled by external judges and experts. The only body we have by law to “supervise” universities and private university courses must stop being a brake and become an engine, hire permanent staff that such a function requires, and turn them from inquisitors into evaluators according to contemporary canons. in Quality control.

We also need a technical formula, to explicitly and clearly allocate funds to the 5 universities in operation and the other two that appear in their infancy (the one for indigenous peoples and the pedagogical one). there are emergencies But not for more than the same. We are either making things up or we are wrong.