Prensa Latina met and talked with the national president of the Federation of University Students of Ecuador (FEUE), Nery Padilla, who stated that as many as 200,000 children and young people have not returned to school since the pandemic and there is no strategy to reintegrate them.

He also denounced that the Executive fails to deliver resources for education, that is, it does not invest 6% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), as foreseen in the legislation.

In higher education, for example, the Government owes US$708 million, that is, it only invests US$300 per student, said Padilla.

He also commented that the general State budget passed for 2024 increases university debt to US$ 712 million, and also claimed that 248,000 young people will not enter higher education centers and regretted that US$ 5 million for scholarships will be eliminated.

At the same time, the FEUE leader warned that the union is facing up the consequences of the security crisis, some teachers have been extorted and murdered, and there are also cases of abuse and sexual harassment in classrooms.

He added that the current Higher Education Law is regressive in rights, violates autonomy, democracy, does not protect budgets, does not provide guarantees to punish harassers and abusers and does not guarantee free admission, which is a constitutional right.

pll/ro/avr