"In the last 30 years, state education in Uruguay has doubled the number of students to one million and tertiary education has grown from 30,000 students and one university in 1980 to 180,000 and two centres," said Minister María Julia Muñoz at the inauguration of UTEC's regional institute led by President Tabaré Vázquez on Sunday in Fray Bentos. This centre is the first of three in the interior of the country.
Vázquez and an official delegation and guests toured the Southwest Regional Technological Institute of the Technological University, installed in the premises of the former Anglo meat packing plant in the capital of Río Negro, guided by the authorities of the place, who detailed the state-of-the-art technological equipment it has, including lift and traffic light simulators, a classroom for mechatronics, modern furniture and laboratories.
He also unveiled a plaque with representatives of the Chinese Embassy in Uruguay, the country that donated the equipment. The president was accompanied by almost all his ministers, his predecessor in office, José Mujica, legislators, departmental and education authorities, among others.
Muñoz recalled that this regional technological institute "has its sights set on the interior of the country".
"Thanks to the cooperation of the Chinese Embassy and the Finnish company UPM, UTEC is a success that responds to those who proclaim from politics and the media that everything in public education is wrong and that we are worse off than 30 years ago and that the most disadvantaged are excluded," he said.
"Such a statement is not true, today we have seen it in Fray Bentos with the inauguration of the Education and Training and Production Centre and the remodelling of the wonderful school N 6", added the Minister of Education and Culture.
"In the last 30 years, students in the public system went from 500,000 to one million, tertiary education went from 30,000 young people in 1980 in one university to 180,000 with two," he said.
He added that, "in early education, the system was for 40,000 children, while now there are 180,000, while in secondary education the number of students has doubled to the current 340,000 and in UTU the development has been extraordinary and in primary education the levels have remained stable.
"It is not true that public education is exclusive, although we still have a long way to go," he added.
He recalled the scholarships granted by the Solidarity Fund, the Ceibal Plan, the multiplication of non-formal education options and the democratisation of education throughout the country, with UTEC, UTU and the University of the Republic.
"We hope that this new technological institute will contribute to developing the skills of hundreds of young people not only in this department, and that it will be a centre of excellence that promotes innovation and research," he added.
"This is a state policy that was born in Mujica's government (2010-2015)," Muñoz emphasised in this act, carried out in the framework of the activities prior to the holding of a new open Council of Ministers on Monday 29th in Fray Bentos, in what is the proposal of a government of proximity.
UTEC in Fray Bentos
UTEC's Southwest Regional Technological Institute is located on the grounds of the Fray Bentos Industrial Landscape, where the Anglo Cold Storage Plant once operated, declared a World Heritage Site by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization on 5 July 2015.
This centre will promote productive development and the contribution of advanced knowledge for a vast region, which includes the departments of Río Negro, Soriano, Colonia and San José.
The institute, which occupies some 3,400 square metres, is expected to house 2,000 students in the first instance in Mechatronics, Information Technology and Biomedical Engineering.
It is the first of three planned for the interior of the country by UTEC, to be followed by the Central-South Institute in Durazno and the Northern Region in Rivera. The authorities explained that these locations were chosen after an analysis of the entire country, which sought to complement other institutions of the National Public Education System.
In early 2013, UTEC began to shape its institutional design, while defining its first degree programmes and the departments in which it would locate its study centres.
In terms of infrastructure, in the first two years it carried out a series of diagnoses of existing and missing capacities throughout the country, in relation to the supply and demand for tertiary education, in order to decide on the location of its offices.
A Technological Unit of the Technological Laboratory of Uruguay (LATU) already operates in the Fray Bentos Industrial Landscape, since 2007, the Regional Training Centre of the Technical Professional Education Council-UTU and soon a House of the University of the Republic will be installed.
The decision to locate this first institute in the capital of Río Negro corresponds to the demand for technological tertiary training in the area, both at university and technologist level.
Source and Photo: Presidency
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