First Draft

Is Colombian universities' strike going to have any effect on the budget for education in the following years?

Higher Education in Colombia is about to get closed or privatized. Some universities are facing an economic crisis because of the lack of money to finish the current year. Such issue started when the government decided to create programs which funneled the private institutions rather than the public ones. Furthermore, the state has a debt of 18.5 billion with the public universities, according to some data provided by the National Union of Students in Higher Education (UNEES). For that reason, Colombian students from public and private universities are on strike. Thus, the students are asking the president to increase the budget for finishing the current year and the budget for the years to come. I think that such strike might be useful for solving the economic crisis that higher education in Colombia faces.

Students' movement has been paramount for defending education and so the strikes. This is not the first strike that university students get on to defend public universities and higher education in Colombia. There was a big one on 2011 proposed by the MANE (Mesa Ampliada Nacional de Estudiantes). In that time, the government tried to implement a new reform to the law 30. That reform, in one way or another, tried to privatize universities by asking the institutions to receive money and interventions from private companies. Of course, it was not something good for the students or the stuff in general. So, the only alternative, like today’s situation, was to start a riot against the government and its policies. Even if was good there was something that the MANE couldn’t do that the UNEES wants to do now. The UNEES is trying not to let things the half way to empower the process of students in the universities in a pedagogical and critical way.    

Nevertheless, the budget for education in 2019 is going to be the highest budget that Colombia has ever had throughout time. Besides, after a demonstration that the students of all the universities around the country ended last Wednesday, the president said that he was going to add 500,000 million to the budget of education next year. But, as it is stated in “Colombian Public Universities Will Go On Strike”: “The current government does not give the adequate resources for public universities to continue fulfilling the social function.”(Telesur, 2018). Hence, the students keep on saying that the amount is not even necessary for allowing the universities to finish the current year and that it does solve the economic problem. The universities are asking for money that could go to infrastructure not to the general budget of education as it also has to do with primary and mid-education.    

Yet, irtsident has not arranged a meeting with the different platforms of students’ movement in the country. Regardless that amount that the president says is going to be provided to education, the students are asking for 4.2 billion for the current year and the payment and the 

Regarding that issue of increasing the budget for ending the current year at the universities, the students' movement demands the president to give 4.5 billion to the current year, whatsoever. Stilll, it is not Colombian govermnet's wish to give that am