Once again, the Rector of the Universidad de Los Andes, Mario Bonucci, warned that this house of higher studies is going through the worst moment in its 238-year history.
Anggy Polanco // Correspondent Lapatilla.com
According to data provided by the rector, during the year 2020 the university only received 50% of the allocated budget; in 2021 the government delivered only 1%, and in 2022 about 3.24%, so there is currently no budget.
As for the salary of university professors, the rector emphasized that the salary was converted into bonuses that deteriorated the conditions of the entire public sector, especially the university sector, where some professors already earn almost the same amount of the minimum wage, in addition they are without social protection in the face of a health emergency, there is no health insurance.
He stressed that since 2018, students do not have a lunch room, transportation, and the adequate dorm network that had been implemented for low-income students no longer exists, which is why he stated that education in Venezuela was privatized, according to this unwritten policy of the Ministry of Education.
He denounced that since 2016 the student diaspora has deepened in this and all universities, which stands at 60% in general terms, although in some faculties the dropout rate is only 6%.
Additionally, there is a dropout of 10% of professors and 6% of employees and workers, which harms the quality of the university. There are vacancies that have long remained unfilled.
However, despite the dark panorama, this house of studies has committed people who keep between two and three jobs, with which they generate resources to pay for transport to the classrooms and food, which means that they are paying to work , as in the case of the functionary in charge of formulating the budget, who has to go out on weekends to sell vegetables in a farmers market, given the misery salary he receives in the ULA (Universidad de Los Andes).
He highlighted that the ULA payroll is 14,000 people, of which 7,000 are retirees who work practically for free.
Bonucci recalled that a large part of the campuses suffers from insecurity and various shortcomings, including the campus of El Vigía, which has been fighting an invasion for years.
“The university has been deeply wounded, but is more alive than ever,” said the academic, who also recounted that there are careers with very few students, especially those that have been condemned by the same regime, such as the Education career, “because in the face of the outrage from the public sector, who is going to want to study Education?”
“How long can we resist and can we maintain the quality that we still have? Well, it is difficult, but I am sure that we can resist, because this is a university with 238 years of history that has seen a federal war, a war of independence,” said Mario Bonucci.
He made a call to society to come out and defend its quality universities and traditions that constitute the hope for the future of the country.