Instability in power: Peru faces biggest crisis on record in education sector | Statement | Miriam Bones | Morgan Crowe | Tina Poluiarte | Chile | Uruguayan | Colombia | Mexico | principle

He home Minister And this Ministry of Education (Minedu) During the first 16 months of Dina Boluarte's administration, they were highly unstable, with five ministers in each portfolio. However, unlike Mininter, Minedu's instability has no close precedents.

Over the past 10 years, the average tenure of an education minister in Peru has been just eight months. If you put a magnifying glass only during PoluiarteThe average is halved.

Compared to 10 countries in the region, Peru has the most unstable Ministry of Education. Peru has 15 ministers, twice as many as Chile, Paraguay and Ecuador; Three times that of Argentina and five times that of Uruguay.

The stability of these latter countries can be seen reflected in the latest PISA 2022 test, with Chile and Uruguay offering the best performance in mathematics among regional countries. In mathematics, Mexico and Peru lost positions in science and joined the average performance group in the region. Chile climbed to 37th in the reading and entered the top half of the world rankings.

– without institutionalization –

Instability in Mined It started in 2016, and in recent years, has been associated with political crises that have had six presidents.

To the former minister Education, Ricardo Cuenca, since 2012 a certain stability has been observed in the sector because, despite having different emphases, everyone agrees on the defense of educational reforms. However, according to Cuenca, the latter ended in 2021 when Pedro Castillo came to power.

“I attribute the stability to the fact that there was a body of officials who learned to implement public policies. With Castillo and Poluarte, this body was weakened and they left as Castillo's guild entered the field. Also, Castillo's ministers were against reforms, Poluarte followed the same path and continued not to work for reforms.”He explained.

Researcher Cuenca said that since 2016, instability in the sector has become more prominent, a natural consequence of the political crises the country has experienced. For former minister Idel Wechsler, the crisis in the sector started earlier, especially in the government of Ollanda Humala in 2012.

“With Minister Salas, a group of somewhat ideological technocrats began to assemble, who knew about education, but not the specifics of the organization. When Kuczynski took office in 2016, the compass was already lost. “They all had a lot of theoretical knowledge, but they weren't in classrooms, they weren't living the educational experience”He pointed out.

Wexler pointed out that the problem also lies in the fact that recent governments lack a clear education policy, and this is compounded by the “ideologicalisation” of the sector through various initiatives. “Ministers change with names, accommodations, compromises. Now ideological criteria take precedence,” warned the author.