History of education during the government of Jorge Ubico in Guatemala
How does Jorge Ubico influence Guatemalan education?
It is said that education, at the time of Jorge Ubico, received less attention than security, sanitation of finance, roads or the construction of public works because Ubico considered that by the limited resources it was preferable to address the economic situation. The general did not share the vision that the education of people constituted a basic support point for the development of the country. He thought more in terms of activation of trade and architecture, and conceived Guatemala as a country that had great potential to develop but could not because of the lack of communication, transport, sanitation and above all order and discipline. He distrusted on the other hand of the intellectuals and teachers, since they made people think and analyze the dictatorships then thinking they were simply the enemies.
That is why his educational work, although at all insignificant, appears in the background within his actions and has an attitude of reserve that leads him to impose strict control over this area. Proof of these reluctance are the changes that were introduced in the constitutional reform of 1935, where it was pointed out: “Teaching establishments cannot be founded without the authorization of the government. The State has the right of inspection in all educational centers ”.
What characteristics did education have in Guatemalan schools during the government of Jorge Ubico?
Jorge Ubico does not neglect education only try to keep it firmly under his control. For example: in his trips to the interior of the country he took care that the local school of each town had large and clean facilities and worried about the health of the students. The concern he had for the primary level in schools was something that caused the number of functional schools in the country to double and the number of students grew by more than one 50%.
Ubico created a school for the Normal School for Rural Teachers to improve the training of teachers who taught in schools in the interior of the country. Ubico forced the Finqueros and the owners of factories to establish schools to provide education to the children of the villages and although this was fulfilled for a short time it was to fight against illiteracy in the country. On the other hand, Ubico worried the students who got to get a bachelor’s degree because they obtained high prestige and as always concerned about the discipline and suspicion of the political activities they could do, caused this level to be militarizedso that everything was done as the government said. This enraged the teachers and soon this anger was reflected in the events that would end the government of Jorge Ubico.
What was the relationship between the National University and Jorge Ubico?
The relationship between the National University and President Jorge Ubico were not entirely good. Since Ubico loved strict discipline, he hated the excess of parties and the bad comments that students could towards public officials, which I located at what he conceived as a danger towards his government and towards public order was annulled.Organic of the University with the purpose of establishing an ‘intimate and necessary contact between the authorities of the institution and the government that would allow more effectively to exercise the contributing action that the State is responsible in all educational work.
Ubico did not seem sufficient change then the following year the president took all control of the university and annul. This new law left in the hands of Jorge Ubico the control of the curricula. To avoid the strike of Dolores the government decided to change the school year from May to February. He created two new faculties: Economics and Dentistry even did a dental service for almost free children, the university was depoliticized.
Only a protest movement arose when the executions of 1934 were produced: when the students dressed in black to go to the University the police imprisoned them. Against this action the students made many protests and this was one of the cases that made the government of Jorge Ubico end.
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