It's Back to School Tomorrow. But Will All Teachers Be There, As the MEP Continues Mired in Problems
 School is set to start tomorrow, well almost, as the Ministerio de Educación Pública (MEP) - public education ministry - still continues with problems with the appointment of teachers. What this means, according to MEP minister, Leonardo Garnier, we cannot guarantee a smooth return to classes tomorrow.

"There are forces that the smooth return to school does not happen, that there are problems, teachers in the wrong classroom, schools with no teachers and classrooms with duplicate teachers", said Garnier.

The minister added that they have some 55.000 teachers appointed and notified, however, he is getting conflicting reports from his own staff, some saying affecting some 30 or 40 teachers, while others say affecting thousands of teachers.

Garnier has promised a complete investigation into what is happening with the appointment of teachers for this school year. The only thing the minister can be sure of is that there have been 55.000 teachers appointed, but cannot be certain if more are required and if all will be in the right classroom come tomorrow.

The MEP has a policy of sending telegrams to the teachers notifying them of their appointment and the school they will be working at. Garnier said that problems with getting all the telegrams out plagued the ministry, as well, many telegrams had the wrong information, like the school they were being assigned, etc.

Garnier added that they began the process of teacher appointments last October to avoid the problems they are facing now. However, following a number of stumbles and the theft of MEP computers last month, where a majority of the data was lost and had to be reconstructed, set the ministry back in the process.

"These types of things don't just happen by accident", said minister Garnier.

Jesús Vásquez, president of the Asociación de Profesores de Segunda Enseñanza (APSE) - teachers union - said yesterday that this is not the time to just recognize that the MEP has a problem, but rather, to tell us how it will be solved. "We want to know the measures that will be adopted", said the union leader.

For his part, José Antonio Barquero of the Asociación Nacional de Educadores (ANDE) - the largest of the teacher's union - said that this is the worst back to school in the last ten years.

Both union leaders pointed the finger at the reason for this whole mess - minister Leonardo Garnier.