New Education Law in Ecuador

Ecuador is suffering a huge change in its education system at these current days. One month ago a new law of education was approved by the Assembly of Ecuador.

Nowadays, the new school year began in our coastal region and the problems appeared. It´s necessary to tell you that there are two calendars to study and they are: The Highland Region and the Coastal Region.

According to the new law teachers have to stay at school for eight hours a day. Six hours a day we have to teach students, and the rest of the time we have to do a lot of different activities. For  example , we have to attend to seminaries, training classes for improving knowledge, assist to students with  learning problems , help parents ,  work with the community ,etc.

Most of the teachers make the following questions. What are the teachers going to do eight hours in the schools or high schools? Most of the schools have two or three academic journals, so it means they work in the morning, afternoon and the evening. Consequently, the new law has a logistical problem.

Moreover, our high school educational system was based in six grades the first three called eighth ninth and tenth of basic, and the last three years of baccalaureate, so they are the final three courses of high schools called: First, Second and Third of bachelor´s degree.

In the next year, high schools will have only three courses the First, Second, and the Third courses of baccalaureate, and the rest courses, that means, eighth, ninth and tenth will belong to basic education, so they have to be part of the elementary schools. Therefore, teachers of the basic education have to be relocated at the elementary schools.

Our new schedule will be from 7 am to 4 pm or from 12 noon to 8 pm. That would be a terrible problem especially for teachers who work in two places in a public and a private institution, or teachers that work in a high school and the university.

Consequently, their incomes will be affected because most of the teachers got bank credits for different reasons, and if they do not count with their extra salaries, they could not afford their debts

The government promised teachers increase our salaries to cover that extra salaries, but they did not say the true because it´s good only for the new teachers, young teachers who begin the activity as teachers. The increase for old teachers is just a few dollars. In consequence, the new reforms are really harmful for the majority of teachers here in Ecuador.

Luis