After the announcement of porteño government regarding the ban on the use of inclusive language in schoolsthe Ministry of Education of the city confirmed that disciplinary measures could be applied to those teachers who repeatedly fail to comply with the regulations.
From that portfolio they told THE NATION that “the spirit of the measure is not to persecute teachers, but to strengthen teaching processes.” For the City, that kind of language is a “obstacle” for the knowledge. “In the face of repeated complaints of non-compliance, and as stipulated by ordinance No. 40,593 of the teaching statute, the Ministry may reprimand or warn and, depending on the background and/or the seriousness, it must initiate an administrative summary that may lead to a suspension and the corresponding discount for those days”, they explained.
the minister herself Soledad Acuna had indicated earlier that teachers would be subjected to a disciplinary administrative process that could lead to some kind of sanction. “It is obvious that, like any regulation, it has to be complied with and that if it is not complied with, there is an administrative disciplinary process,” said the official in dialogue with FM Milenium. And so she compared: “In the same way that if a teacher chooses to evaluate with emoticons instead of numbers. I regulate the ways of evaluating. If it is not complied with, there is a sanction procedure.”
“We take out a resolution within the framework of a lot of decisions that we have been making for a long time as a result of the consequences of the pandemic on students, as a result of the drop in learning in both public and private schools,” Acuña explained and spoke of “removing all the obstacles that may exist” that interfere with those objectives.
The City requested that they no longer be used expressions with the “e”, the “x” and the “@” in the classroom and in communications with families. In principle, the Buenos Aires authorities anticipate that it will be the directors of the institutions who will try to dissuade the teacher from using that type of language within the framework of her teaching activity.
Acuña indicated that “the first thing that the leadership of that school has to do is explain to the teacher that the focus of what he does has to be on the rights of the students, not on what he or she as an adult is interested in rebelling or go against it,” he said. From the Ministry of Education they added that even families could talk about it with the leadership of the institution.
The announcement by the Buenos Aires government regarding limiting the use of inclusive language in the city’s schools continues to make people talk. Who in the last hours came out to harshly criticize the decision of Horacio Rodriguez Larreta and his cabinet was Minister of Education of the Nation, Jaime Perczyk.
“It has to do with ideological discussions with a sector with which they dispute, with liberalism. It is incredible, they are liberal, but they prohibit”said the official on Radio 10, and linked this measure to an “electoral issue.”
“You forbid the kids something and what are the kids going to do?” Perczyk wondered, hinting that, with the decision, this way of speaking and writing will be used even more. Once again, as happened during the first two years of the pandemic, there is a strong crossover between the governments of the Nation and the city on educational issues.
And after his Buenos Aires peer warned that there may be sanctions on those teachers who use this type of expression in the classroom, the national official replied: “In Argentina, since 1918 there is academic freedom.”
The deputy of Together for Change Facundo Manes joined the controversy. “There is no prohibition because inclusive language was never approved”, he said on Rivadavia radio. Regarding the measure, he added that “it is a ‘fulbito’ for the grandstand”.