Starting this year the professors at the University of Panama who are 75 years old or older will not be able to teach classes, which has them annoyed. Miguel Antonio Bernal said this is a violation of their rights, because the university wants to hire people who are not prepared to teach. Similarly he said teachers of this age have great knowledge and they prepare the university students as they should be. (Dia a Dia)

"Why do we hurt the kids? Sometimes I do not understand", said Education Minister Lucy Molinar on Thursday, reacting to an announcement made by the Indian Coordinator, who said they are analyzing the possibility of not sending their children to school on Monday, 27 February 2012. Molinar said this would be a "crime" and she said the students would be affected more than the government. "Besides the fact that we do not have the quality (of education) that we would like them to have, on top of that were are going to punish them by leaving them at home," she said. She said in addition to sending a negative message that they cannot find solutions in a "civilized manner" in education, the hours lost are difficult to retrieve. (Telemetro)

Editor's Comment: The school year starts in Panama on Monday, 27 February 2012, and the protesting Indians said they might order their children to stay at home. Smart. That'll teach Martinelli a thing or two... (what?)

Rodrigo Andrade, the regional director of the Ministry of Education, responded to the complaints of teachers who work in areas that are difficult to reach who are supposed to be in training, but said there are no trainers available. According to Andrade, each area had to be responsible for each educational region. In that regard he added that he is only responsible for Veraguas, and the rest of the areas said they would send the remaining facilitators. However, the teachers who are being trained insist that even by the second day of the seminar no facilitators attended. It was learned that in Sona the teachers have been attending the seminars for two days, without having been attended. (Estrella)

Editor's Comment: The teachers are supposed to be receiving a couple of weeks of training before the start of the school year. With more than a thousand schools and thousands of teachers, certainly something was going to fell through the cracks. Looks like it happened in Sona, at least.

"Tales of Terror" was the phrase used by the Minister of Education, Lucy Molinar, to describe the inadequate rehabilitation work being done by companies in certain schools. At present, the Meduca has opened 17 legal proceedings against the companies who have not complied with the rules of contracts, especially with the date of delivery of projects. Molinar admitted that not all schools will be ready for the new school year, in terms of maintenance. Meduca now only allows contracted repair work to be done on schools where they can place an inspector. Before, MEDUCA would grant contracts to companies specifying expensive materials, but then the companies would install cheaper floors, toilets and sinks that do not meet the basic requirements for the frequency of use, considering the levels of heavy use of the bathrooms in schools. "Before the contracts were granted and no one watched the quality of this work," Molinar reported. She noted there are schools that have the same electrical systems that were installed 25 years ago.

Meanwhile, the leader of the Association of Teachers of Panama (Asoprof), Andres Rodriguez said this year the Meduca has scheduled the rehabilitation of schools nationwide. Rodriguez also said Meduca left the responsibility to the individual school principals for general (routine) repairs, using the Fund for Fairness and Quality of Education (FECE), which is for minor repairs of schools, for example, fixing doors or building new classrooms. "There are schools in Panama City that have problems of water, electricity, and bathrooms. The most recent case is that of the American Institute which does not have a roof," he said.

However, Minister Molinar said she has already spoken with the company about the situation at the American Institute and they agreed upon a work schedule that requires the contractor to have the classrooms ready. "Only one classroom will be without a roof for just one day, because the contractor was asked to do the additional work," said Molinar.

Across the country, the Meduca has contracted for improvement or maintenance work to 139 schools, and of those 72 projects have been delivered, said the National Chief of Maintenance, Guillermo Bernal. It was also learned that during 2012, Meduca is scheduled to improve 1,100 public school campuses around the country, purchasing materials programs for minor repairs through the FECE program, and using prison inmates on work release programs, in addition to the contracts that have been granted for the construction and repair schools. (Panama America)

Editor's Comment: Of all of the Ministers in the government of Ricardo Martinelli, it is my personal opinion that Lucy Molinar is doing the best job.

According to the teachers' union leader Luis Lopez, the Ministry of Education is not ready to start the 2012 school year. He said several colleagues who work in difficult to reach areas fear transportation will not be available to take them to their schools. Lopez also said there are not enough teachers available to teach classes. (Telemetro)

Editor's Comment: The 2012 school year in Panama is supposed to start soon. They lost a week of preparation time in some areas due to the strike. But whatever the challenges, I'm sure the officials at the Ministry of Education will be addressing the problems and shortcomings. I'm also sure the leaders of the teacher's union won't pass up any opportunity to toss stones at the management. It's the game they play. The kids will go to school and get the best education available in the public school system in Panama, such as it is. Not to take anything away from the Minister of Education Lucy Molinar - she's fighting like hell to make improvements and upgrades (applause), with the teacher's union fighting and kicking and resisting and screaming the whole way (boo).

The modernization of the education system in Panama was among the many issues raised during the recent Bishops Conference. Among those attending the activity was the Minister of Education, Lucy Molinar, who said this has been her goal since the first day she took office. "Of course, this is the task we have been working on since day one," she said. Molinar justified the Church's message Panama. "I think it's a legitimate statement, it's correct, from someone who cares about the country. I think we should all think about it," she said. The minister declined to comment on whether or not this statement would have anything to do with the latest developments in national politics, saying she made ​​a commitment to not allow these kinds of issues to intrude on education. "Despite the passion I have inside about it, I have to honor my word," said Molinar, who initially tried to shun the media as she left the conference of the bishops. (Panama America)

Editor's Comment: I have no idea why the career journalist Lucy Molinar would try to "shun" or avoid the media. She just drips with credibility and respectability. One gets the impression she would rather have her left arm torn off and eaten by a puma, than to steal a single dime of the government's money. She does not want to get involved in the day to day political brawls (this week - the resignation of Bosco Vallarino) and she only wants to talk about improving the education system in Panama. Of course she knows the media will ask her about the political crap, simply because she's a minister on Martinelli's cabinet. However, she should just stand there, smile, and reply with "why are you asking me about that? I'm the Minister of Education. Would you like to talk about the new and modernized curriculum? The money we've spent to build new schools or improve the existing infrastructure? The universal scholarship program? Continuing education programs to improve the skills of our teachers?" In other words, ignore the politics, and talk about the improvements she has made to the education system, which are many and substantial. If she wanted to get political, she could start off with "You know, since the last two Ministers of Education from the PRD administration of Martin Torrijos were arrested and thrown in prison for embezzlement, we've been able to make a whole lot of progress to fix the damage they left behind..."

During the 2011 school year in Panama a total of 63,359 students failed one or more subject. The Ministry of Education pointed out this is a lower number of failures than what was recorded in 2010, when 76,961 students flunked. According to official figures, this year 41,373 students failed three for fewer subjects, which means they had the right to attend summer school remedial courses. Meanwhile, 21,986 students failed four or more subjects, meaning they will have to repeat the school year (about 9% of all students). In 2010 about 49,504 students attended summer school remedial courses, while 27,457 students had to repeat the school year - so there were decreases in both categories this year. Marisin Chanis, the Regional Director of Education, said that despite the decrease compared with 2010, the figures are alarming.

Questions: Andres Rodriguez, the President of the Association of Teachers (ASOPROFE), said although the Government has invested in education they cannot expect effective results if these projects are not planned. Rodriguez said this year programs such as the "universal scholarship" have been implemented, as well as bonds, and the delivery of free books. (Siglo)

Editor's Comment: Get this - the subject failed by most students - Spanish. In any case, these numbers represent an overall decrease of 21.4% in the failure rate compared to last year. Panama's Minister of Education and the government overall is working hard to improve the school system. These efforts center on an overhaul of the national curriculum - which has been heavily resisted by the entrenched teacher's union - mostly because they don't want to have to learn new materials or be held accountable for their performance. Despite these complaints Lucy Molinar has soldiered on. And this is the first time in a long time that I genuinely feel that the Panamanian school system will be better once she's done than when she started. By comparison, two former Education Ministers who served under the PRD administration of Martin Torrijos are facing corruption charges for embezzling money that was supposedly going to be used to clean "fiberglass contamination" from public schools. They were obviously more interested in stealing public funds than improving the public school system.

Arturo Rivera, the Director of National Assessment of Education, of the Ministry of Education (MEDUCA), denied there was an increase in the number of students who failed during the 2011 school year. Rivera said on RPC Radio the statistics show during the 2010 school year 80% of students failed to pass, and in 2011 this figure decreased by 11%. According to reports, the factors influencing the failure of students within classrooms, is a lack of motivation and distractions from technology (cell phones and text messages.) The subjects with the most failures are mathematics and Spanish, areas in which the Meduca made sufficient staff available to meet demand. (Panama America)

Editor's Comment: You saw it right. This week the students who failed courses during the regular school year will start attending summer school classes in order to "make up" for the grades they could not achieve. In the Panamanian public school system any student can fail up to three subjects, and if they attend summer school to "reinforce" those materials, they can be advanced to the next grade for the following school year. If they fail four or more subjects then they are automatically held back a year. And, if they fail to either attend summer school or pass the subjects required for make-up or reinforcement, then they are also held back. Not only is it common for students to have to attend summer school, as highlighted in this article in 2010 some 80% of students had to attend summer school for at least one subject. And this year apparently that number dropped by 11% to 69% of all public school students.

The Minister of Education, Lucy Molinar, reiterated on Monday, November 21, that due to the lack of water in the capital, classes in the different schools in the central and Eastern parts of the province of Panama as well as in the district of San Miguelito have been suspended. The Minister of Education said on TVN News, the measure was taken as a prudent act, following information provided by the Institute of Aqueducts and Sewers (IDAAN), who said they are not sure of the quality of water that is reaching the different places served by the Chilibre water treatment plant. Although there are schools that have not had any problems with the lack of water supply, classes were suspended anyway, and Molinar in the rest of the country classes are proceeding normally. (Estrella)

#Panama - Authorities from the Ministry of Education, parents, teachers and other educational community members are assessing the situation of students who were retained in the riot last Tuesday. Imelda Guerra, rector in charge of the National Institute, said today they will continue consultations with members of the educational community to study the file of each student. The academic transcripts and behavior of the 104 students who were arrested will be analyzed. These students were arrested while participating in the last four protest actions since 5 July 2011. Guerra said there will be a pre-enrollment application process, and priority will be given to those students with both good behavior and academic index. She added that students who have an index less than 4.0 or who have files for problems of discipline or disrespect for authorities will only be allowed to enter the campus on a conditional basis. (Siglo)

Editor's Comment: Police arrested 31 students from the National Institute during this most recent demonstration on Tuesday this week. When they say the students will be allowed to enter the campus on a "conditional" basis they mean a sort of probation - either fly straight or you'll be kicked out.