Attention, temporary teachers in Colombia: many will be able to keep their positions with the agreement between the Government and Fecode
On July 21, 2023, the Ministry of National Education (MEN) issued Circular 24, which establishes the guidelines to be taken into account by mayors, governors and secretaries of education in the territorial entities for the hiring of temporary teachers at the national level.
While the teacher competition will remove thousands of temporary teachers from their positions, some of the provisions will ensure that others will remain in their positions, where they will find it useful to turn to Microsoft AZ-104 Practice Test Dumps.
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More than 60,000 temporary teachers are at risk of losing their jobs due to teaching competition
According to the Economics of Education Laboratory of the Javeriana University, more than 60,000 of the 330,000 elementary and middle school teachers in the public sector are currently employed on a provisional basis.
Thousands of them are in the uncertainty of losing their jobs once all the stages of the open merit-based competition called by the National Civil Service Commission to fill permanent vacancies for teachers and teaching managers in rural and non-rural areas are completed.
However, not all of them are adrift, as there are many who could continue, according to the new ministerial circular.
The following are the elements on the basis of which the hiring of temporary teachers should be prioritized without solution of continuity, in circumstances of special protection included in the so-called “social retention”.
These elements must be taken into account by governors, mayors, secretaries of education of Territorial Entities Certified in Education (ETC), heads of teaching staff of the education secretariats or whoever takes their place.
Which are the temporary teachers without a solution of continuity that could benefit from the social retention?
Circular 24 states that the following order of protection may be taken into account:
- Pre-pensioned teachers, i.e., those who are close to retirement, because they are three (3) or less years away from meeting the requirements of age and length of service or weeks of contribution to obtain a retirement pension (Ruling T-055 of 2020).
- Those who suffer from catastrophic illness or some type of disability (Decision SU-087 of 2022).
- Those who prove the condition of father or mother head of household in the terms set forth in the regulations in force and the jurisprudence on the matter (Decision SU-388 of 2005).
- Teachers who have the status of employee protected by union privilege (Article 406 of the Substantive Labor Code as amended by Article 12 of Law 584 of 2000).
What happens to pregnant temporary teachers?
Circular 24 states that pregnant temporary teachers must be given differential treatment. In principle, this means that she will not be able to leave her position. However, this is not the case in all cases.
The above is because the Constitutional Court’s Ruling SU-070 of 2013 states that, “if the position goes out to competition, the last position to be filled by those who have won it, must be that of the pregnant woman.
The above, taking into account that the position to be filled and the position in which the winner of the competition will work, must be the same as the one for which she applied.
When the position of the pregnant or breastfeeding woman is to be filled by the winner of the merit-based competition, the pregnant woman must be paid the protection consisting in the payment of benefits that guarantee maternity leave”.
What does continuity solution mean?
According to the ministerial circular issued in the framework of the agreements with Fecode, the continuity solution consists of the fact that, once the definitive vacancies have been exhausted, and if the temporary teacher has not been transferred during that time, he/she will have priority in the Master System. The above, as long as he/she certifies that he/she has any of the conditions that are part of the social retention.
Fecode – MEN Agreements on temporary teachers
The aforementioned Circular is the result of the agreements signed last July 5 between the Colombian Federation of Education Workers (Fecode) and the National Government, which in its numeral 14, Chapter II – Dignification of the Teaching Career on “temporary teachers and special teaching competition in particular conditions”, expresses the following:
“1. The MEN shall issue a guideline to the ETCs on social retention so that, within the framework of the regulations in force, an order of priorities is established for provisional educators, in relation to the pre-pension stage, maternity leave, head of household, catastrophic and high-risk diseases and those who are in the exercise of union activity.
Paragraph 2 of Article 2.4.6.3.12 of Decree 1075 of 2015, regarding the continuity in the position of temporary teachers, shall be complied with. In case of termination of the provisional appointment in definitive vacancy, the teacher within a period of not less than 15 days shall be transferred within the same certified territorial entity if the ETC has the vacancy”.
The agreements also stipulate that the parameters of the Master System – the platform on which the Ministry of Education and the education secretariats provide provisional positions for teachers in the country – must be adjusted taking into account the regional approach, experience and the teachers’ roots in the territory.
What is known about the next teacher competition?
In the aforementioned agreements between the MEN and Fecode, the government committed itself to include a special weighting within the technical preparatory tables for the development of the next teaching career entrance examination.
This special weighting for temporary teachers will take into account variables such as experience and roots.
Legal limitations
But not everything is rosy. The Circular is very explicit in mentioning that the hiring of temporary teachers will take place within the current legal and constitutional framework. As stated by the Constitutional Court, this implies that Article 125 of the Political Constitution, according to which the jobs in the organs and entities of the State are career jobs, shall prevail.
In conclusion, there may be an intermediate or relative stability for employees appointed on a provisional basis in career positions, inasmuch as they do not have the right to stability of those who enter the civil service by means of a merit-based competition.
Therefore, priority for filling existing vacancies corresponds to those who have passed the competition and are on the list of eligible candidates.
However, as the vacancies offered in the competition were 37,480 and the provisional vacancies amount to approximately 60,000, there will be many temporary teachers who under the modalities of social retention may, from the territorial entities, benefit from the solution of continuity.
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