Education ministry under siege across the Isthmus

The last week has been a tough one for Education Minister Lucy Molinar with challenges and complaints rolling in from across the country.

A nation wide strike teacher’s strike was compounded in Nata, Cocle by a move by students to susp of classes at Mariano Prado College.

They are protesting the poor conditions found in classrooms and laboratories, the basketball court, the washrooms and the school bus. Their decision to suspend classes, if steps are not taken by the Ministry of Education (Meduca) is supported by parents and teachers of the school. will be taken this week, reports said. This, if the Ministry of Education (Meduca) does not give an answer to the needs of the school, which has an enrollment of 1,200 students
At a meeting held at the campus basketball court, officials of the regional office Meduca promised to refer the problem to "higher spheres", to get an early answer.
Meanwhile the Silvia Carrera chieftan  of the Ngäbe Bugle region, , who led the protest that forced the government to ban mining in their territory, on Saturday called for Molinar, to address the problems of the indigenous people. She told a meeting of teachers in the province of Veraguas, that the the educational problems in the region were unknown to the Minister because she never been there there. Carrera said the Minister of Education has never visited the area, so can not know the difficulties there are. "The minister has not sat with educators to study the problems.”
The chieftain told the radio network RPC that often, teachers must "invent" classrooms to teach classes to students, and invited Molinar, to "walk" the region, so that she knows the situation they face..
The Association of Educatorsof Veraguas (AEVE) met on the weekend to analyze the issues facing the sector, while in Panama the leaders of the teachers' strike, continued a dialogue with Meduca, mediated by the Catholic Church, without suspending the strike.