Aproximación al estado situacional de los derechos docentes en la década de gobierno correísta, Ecuador

Approach to the situational state of the educational rights in the decade of correísta government, Ecuador

Oswaldo Haro-Jácome

Universidad Central del Ecuador, Quito, Ecuador

oharo@uce.edu.ec

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6387-9591

Ana Chamorro-Morales

Universidad Central del Ecuador, Quito, Ecuador

anabel0952@gmail.com

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8741-8140

(Received on: 20/10/2019; Accepted on: 30/10/2019; Final version received on: 08/01/2020)

Suggested citation: Haro-Jácome, O. y Chamorro-Morales, A. (2020). Approach to the situational state of the educational rights in the decade of correísta government, Ecuador. Revista Cátedra, 3(1), 112-130.

Resumen

El estudio analiza la situación de los derechos del profesorado ecuatoriano en los ámbitos laboral y gremial durante la década de gobierno correísta. Se trata de una investigación necesaria en la academia, que recoge las apreciaciones de docentes pertenecientes al sector de servidores públicos regentados por el estado. La pertinencia radica en la descripción de la disputa entre el magisterio organizado en su gremio, la Unión Nacional de Educadores (UNE), con el poder gubernamental liderado por el controvertido Eco. Rafael Correa, durante la década 2007-2017. La investigación es fundamentalmente cualitativa, retrospectiva, transversal y descriptiva. El instrumento empírico es la encuesta aplicada a una población de 300 docentes en servicio, indagados durante el periodo lectivo 2017-2018. Complementariamente se utilizó entrevistas a profundidad aplicada a profesionales expertos en derechos humanos y participación ciudadana. Como resultados más sobresalientes se encontró que, mayoritariamente, los docentes perciben haber sido objeto

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de vulneración en sus derechos, especialmente laborales, sindicales y de libertades civiles. Las afectaciones sistemáticas al magisterio, como sector profesional y a los docentes en particular, se produjeron por una acción política intencional planeada por el poder del estado. Los datos de campo también demuestran que unos pocos docentes aprecian haber sido beneficiados por el gobierno.

Palabras clave

Correísmo, derechos, docentes, Estado, política.

Abstract

The study analyzes the situation of the rights of Ecuadorian teachers in the labor and union spheres during the decade of correísta government. This is a necessary investigation in the academy, which includes the assessments of teachers belonging to the public employees run by the state. The relevance lies in the description of the dispute between the teachers organized in their guild, the National Union of Educators (UNE), with the governmental power led by the controversial Eco. Rafael Correa, during the 2007-2017 decade. The research is fundamentally qualitative, retrospective, transversal and descriptive. The empirical instrument is the survey applied to a population of 300 teachers in service, investigated during the 2017-2018 school period. In addition, interviews were applied to professional experts in human rights and citizen participation. As more outstanding results it was found that, mostly, teachers perceive having been subject to violation of their rights, especially labor, union and civil liberties. Systematic effects on teachers, as a professional sector and teachers in particular, were produced by an intentional political action planned by the power of the state. Field data also show that a few teachers appreciate having been benefited by the government.

Keywords

Correísmo, rights, teachers, state, politics.

1. Introduction

The political analysis in Ecuador on the Government of Rafael Correa Delgado (2007-2017) from his arrival in the presidency in January 2007, until its completion in May 2017, is highly controversial. A very representative political sector defends the actions and practices of correism, contrary to another important sector that also regards it as repressive and anti- social rights.

During the correist decade it has been repeatedly proven that there was social repression of the state against social movements. The Bureau for Truth and Justice in February 2019 "concluded that the former staff and officials of that government used justice to persecute opponents and criminalize social protest" (El Telégrafo, 2019, p. 12). Precisely the study is an approximation to the reality of the public teacher´s guild in Ecuador, called the National Union of Educators (UNE).

The presidential speech Rafael Correa Delgado permanently pronounced in Sabatinas1 and other political spaces and judicial actions, was the most visible forms of human rights violations of much of the population. Along with the indigenous people, the labor movement and the environmentalists, one of the sectors most affected by the correism decade was the

1 Sabatinas: these are the so-called citizens' accountable bonds of the correista government broadcast on radio and television, on Saturdays, from 2007 to 2017.

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teachers. Examples include: increasing working hours to 40 hours per week with pay reductions, illegalization to THE UNE, ignorance of retirement incentives, forced removals of teachers, absurd complementary activities that overwhelmed the teacher, both on campus and at home.

The contributions described to the Ecuadorian Magisterium contradict humanist currents that advocate the constant need to progress in the quality of education systems, with vital input from the teacher. According to McKinsey & Company (2008), "the quality of an education system has as its roof in the quality of its teachers" (p. 15). Many Asian countries are prioritizing quality teacher training and then socially and economically supporting the profession, as a factor in the success of the social system since, by prioritizing teaching well- being, their work becomes more effective and consequently the above expectations is the "traditional respect for the teacher" (McKinsey & Company, 2008, p. 15).

Also, multilateral agencies such as the United Nations (UN-UNESCO) have launched actions of teaching claim, evidenced in the Incheon Declaration (2015), which in the fourth Sustainable Development Goal states the following:

(...) we will ensure that teachers and educators are empowered, properly recruited, well trained, professionally qualified, motivated and supported within systems that have sufficient resources, are efficient and that are effectively targeted (p. 8).

The purpose of this study is to explore the status of the rights of teachers and their union during the government period of Rafael Correa Delgado. It addresses the right-working variables of teachers and trade union rights. The first aspect of the research focuses on the situation of individual rights of the Ecuadorian Magisterium based on international conventions, Ecuadorian constitutional mandates, regulations, provisions in force during the study period. The second aspect describes the situation of the UNE, as the teaching guild with the greatest impact on the defense and vindication of the Ecuadorian Magisterium. The study is developed through a bibliographic-documentary and empirical analysis, by taking data from teachers belonging to the public labor sector.

2. Socio-political context of correism

In the Latin American context, since the 70s of the twentieth century, neoliberalism had an impact on Latin America and Ecuadorian governments that made policy-guided decisions such as, "the privatization of education that brings teachers down to the disqualification from the profession, removing recognition and autonomy" (Terachi, 2012, 53). According to isch in Ecuador during the last democratic stage, prior to the correism, from 1980 to 2007, neoliberal projects in education were a constant destruction of the national and local, by impositions of financial bodies such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank. It was the country's external debt that pressured the intervention of these corporations that determined changes contrary to an education with national vision, confirmed in reports of the banks managing these projects (Isch, 2011, p 3-4).

Undoubtedly, public educational quality was affected by neoliberal projects, while governments strategically systematized the policy of blaming teaching for the poor learning outcomes evidenced in the results of the assessments such as the Baccalaureate. In these conditions the valid option was social protest in the streets, to make their discontent heard. Interestingly in this protest Alianza País was born (AP), led by Rafael Correa, with high popular support, a political movement committed to a transformation in the social

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superstructure, which was done in the 2008 Constitution, but which left the wealth intact held by the bourgeoisie.

2.1 The good living for the movement “Alianza País” (AP)

The Sumak Kawsay, or Good Living2, being the pre-Columbian indigenous philosophy, was coined by AP to inform its national development plan. Correa used it deftly in his speech in his political rhetoric, as an antithesis to combat the old neoliberal political practice that had been the paradigm of previous governments (Contrato Social por la Educación, 2012). according to Yánez at that time the Andean philosophy of the Good Living of the Correist government emerges as a foundation that prioritizes the rights and the well-being of citizens, with which each tries to forge a dignified life (Yánez, 2014, p. 8).

AP in his mass discourse proclaimed the power of the people, conceived as a constituent in his relationship with the state. Society became a transcendent player in state decision- making and subject to rights (Yánez, 2014, p. 9). Unfortunately, as moving from political statements and promises to government actions, contradictions are expressed. In the same time Rafael Correa's terms "The President of the Republic is not only head of the Executive Branch, he is head of the entire Ecuadorian State" (Acosta ,2009, p. 2), subjugating the other functions of the state and above all the people in the construction of policies, since those in charge were the agencies of the government as always (Rojas, Aguilar, Piedra, 2018, p. 53).

2.2 The vision of the teacher´s right

For Sanchez, the Magisterium throughout history has fought against the oppression of the state, as a key player in the transformation of society, especially with its contribution to the social progress and the quality of the education system, thus it analyzes through the Sociological perspective. However, from this important role that the teacher has undeniably had, in Ecuador, historically, the teaching rights have been relegated by governments, especially in the Correist decade (Sánchez, 2016, p. 12).

An emblematic project of the AP government is the “proclamation of the 2008 Constitution, which prioritizes the rights of society and nature over capital” (Zibell, 2017, p. 21). Although social investment in the first period of government improves for education and reflects relative improvement in teacher pay, which rises minimally, i.e.; the changes were superficial, because in practice the same neoliberal prescriptions were applied in education (Isch, 2011, p. 376). It is precisely the beginning of conflicts between the government and teachers over the violation of rights by the Ecuadorian state.

2.3 Situation of the teacher´s rights

It is a universal human right, the expression of opinion that people and society have, this right should not be violated by actions of the state; however, in Ecuador, according to Plan V (2016):

Since the advent of correism to power (...) there have been at least 1409 cases of aggressions to freedom of expression in Ecuador, ranging from "the selective and arbitrary application of legislation that already counts as one of the most restrictive prior censorship through the imposition of content by different authorities by abusing the right to reply and rectification (applied interchangeably), dozens of cases of persecution of

2 Sumak Kawsay: Simbaña (2011) cited by Arteaga-Cruz (2017), a proposal that aims to focus society on the subject, an attempt to rebuild the subject-object link, a community creation inspired by the ayllu and the proposal of the indigenous movement of Ecuador (p. 909).

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tweeters, bloggers and even Facebook page managers, censorship of content on the Internet (...), the closure of media and seizure of teams, new insults and stigmatizing discourse about journalistic targets physical assaults, imprisonment and repression against those who exercise the right to protest (p. 21).

It is clear that opinion rights were restricted to social movements that generated critical thinking, social struggle. This restriction obviously fell on the organization of teaching, the UNE which was greatly affected, as it was "prohibited from the development of trade union activities in state educational establishments, calling them political acts that destabilize democratic regime" (Isch, 2015, p. 12), which affected the actions of the organization of teachers, but which contrary to the intention to disappear it, the teachers defended it permanently, showing recognition for its historical action.

2.4 Legal security of the UNE

The legal certainty in terms posed for the Ecuadorian context by Zabala-Egas (2011) asserts that it is "any act, whether by action or omission from the authority that injures or intends to injure it by imminently causing harm" (p. 14). Hence, the state is the institution obliged to ensure protection for the society, but being the cause of violence against the Magisterium, it violates constitutional and legal norms. UNE, for a decade, was the victim of legal uncertainty and aggression by the PA government.

A political decision that determined the beginning of the conflict between the government and the teaching guild was the implementation of the teacher evaluation in 2009, instead of training, the dialogue with the magisterium about the political mechanism was a verbal attack and a legal action of the president of the republic. This action that should have been technical became: "a very tough battle, more political than technical, with repression in the streets and police in the classroom, aimed above all to weaken the union and teachers. The UNE was crushed to be defeated" sentenced Correa" (Torres R., 2009, p. w/p). The permanent, unmeasured and systematic offenses of the government's repressive apparatus against UNE obtained the planned effect, and affected the legal certainty of the UNE, as Pallasco (2014) states that:

(...) no more mistreatment, no more disqualification (...) from military at the gates to insults of the representative: mediocre, corrupt, lazy (...) and the teacher was stigmatized (...); this is how teachers, even though national and international regulations are supported by the government, they were violated, fostering fear, harming education, the student and the teacher (p. 41).

The correist demagogic offer to align the teachers adept to this political positions was the supposed magisterial revaluation, however, this process minimizes teachers, and generates a fight reaction from UNE, which consequently was the victim of the lynching of the public media, degradation of its leaders, even degradation of social sectors towards teaching. UNE's struggle focused on labor rights of "social content to ensure the best living conditions" (Aguilar, 1998, p. 96), such as: salary, retirement, social stability, scale, merit contests, among others.

2.5 Wage and labor rights

Wage is a right that every worker receives, according to his/her time and ability to work, as determined by the UN, through (National Commission on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, 2012, p. 11). Therefore, “teacher´s wage is a right and at the same time, an important

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factor that affects the quality of education, derived from experience, performance and evaluations, which are factors that guarantee remuneration, as mentioned by” (Organic Law of Intercultural Education, 2011, p.21). It was precisely the salary one of the fundamental elements that Correa's government used to suffocate the teacher economically, since, while there was a slight increase, it had no equality with the increase of the weekly working day, from 25 to 40 hours, which inevitably led to an accelerated impoverishment of the teaching profession.

The salary of the Ecuadorian teacher prior to the reforms of the Correa government, as a conquest of his struggle, consisted of several salary items such as: basic salary and additional as the increase by category, by function, by type of institution, location rural bonus, urban, border and Galapagos, seniority compensation, educational and family allowance, and retirement incentive (Congreso Nacional Ecuador, 2000). All these wage factors were unified into a single salary, achieved with the participation of UNE.

Wage reforms to some extent benefited teachers who in 2012 began their teaching on a salary of $741, a considerable increase compared to the previous basic salary of $330 plus bonuses and subsidies. Clearly it was about improving the teacher´s payment, but it was not an equitable increase, the reform is full when it is possible to maintain all 10 categories on the ladder (Posso, 2014, p. 103). But the teaching location on the new pay scale has taken almost a decade, so much so that to this day it does not benefit the entire public magisterium.

Another policy implemented is the impact of the teaching performance on the salary, i.e. (2011) the result of the evaluation affected teachers, as well as the "variable remuneration for efficiency. - Variable remuneration will be linked to the result obtained by the teacher in the public career in the evaluation applied by the National Institute of Educational Assessment (...)” (p. 36), was a government policy that was implemented to achieve efficiency of public servants among other teachers.

according to Isch the teaching evaluation carried out by the Ministry of Education of Ecuador, “as a mechanism of professional improvement, and above all to meet standards of educational quality, was finally a test of award and punishment for the Magisterium” (Isch, 2010, p. 20). At the same time that the weekly class hours were increased to 30 and 10 hours for administrative activities, also increased the pedagogical function, which limits the teacher´s thinking, read and write about his experience (Web del maestro CMF, 2018). Concomitantly to the provisions explained, according to Vargas, cited by Chamorro (2018):

Teachers have an overwork, they spend more time filling matrices, collecting evidence, taking photos to present to institutional authorities and districts. (...), the growing importance that MinEduc attaches to technocratic and instrumental approaches to education and pedagogy. (p. 83)

Since the state's correist administration, today the bureaucratic overload forced on the teacher is confirmed, in disarray of the quality of education, since the indicators are not encouraging, despite the apparent changes so touted by the previous government, and accepted to the beginning of Lenin Moreno's government, but the same "Fander Falconí, head of MinEduc, reported that an excessive overload was detected to the professors" (El Telegrafo, 2006, p. 2), which is an important self-criticism of power.

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2.6 Job stability and teaching retirement

From the government of AP, especially to position the Network of Teachers, in the development of UNE, Correa (2016) repeatedly stated that in Ecuador there were a very high number, almost 60 thousand of teachers, working in public campuses without contracts, nor were registered in the Ministry of Education, who received wages below legal, before corism (p. 10.11), contrary to what was touted from the official spheres, Isch (2010) asserts that:

(...) not even the generation of the 12,000 positions agreed at the beginning of the government until November 2008 had been delivered by only a close to 3,000 appointments while more than 6,000 teachers would be working for temporary contracts, maintaining the labor easing typical of neoliberalism (p. 18)

Despite the continuing government propaganda, especially in the Sabatinas, five years later, as early as 2014, the figures did not vary much, as Isch argues (2015):

Out of the 147.129.000 teachers in the national education system through 2013, only 99,611 have an appointment that guarantees their stability, while 47,518 work under the "temporary contract" modality, with a salary between $430 and $530 (usually 50% of the salary of those who have an appointment with job stability) (p. 12).

Concomitantly, political management models such as labor impoverishment, low wages, basic rights affectation were maintained, this was a key point where the government managed to manipulate teachers to support the political strategy of a new guild, the Network of Teachers, in The Lost Decade in Education. In this regard, Vargas-Meza (2016) supports:

The hired teachers do not receive their final appointment. This is a cause for blackmail, because they must go to the meetings must behave. Lately the Districts hire teachers for the school year, they are fired telling them that this position will be held by those who won the “Be Teacher” contest (p. 48).

The narrative of the AP movement raised false hopes about teaching salaries, as it applied the same prescriptions of neoliberal administrations, even with the greatest ideological burden, violated the guarantee of rights, permanently violated the LOEI3 and above all the Constitution that "(...) prohibits the existence of any precarious contract" (Isch, 2010, 19). Since the advent of power in 2007, AP “has offered to improve the retirement of teachers and Ecuadorian workers in general, who were retiring at very advanced age and with outrageous wages” (Correa, 2016, p. 7), despite the proposal to revalue the teacher; the government of AP in 2011, through the reforms to LOEI, executes its offer as it repeals the "Supreme Decree 719, published in the RO of May 5, 1964, which established an additional contribution of 5% of the employer and personal contributions of the Magisterium to finance teachers' retirement" (Posso, 2014, p. 98).

In 2015 Correa's government dealt another political blow to the Ecuadorian Magisterium, by withdrawing the resources with which the state financed pensions. The government withdraws 40% of official support, breaking the guarantee and obligation of the state with retirees provided by the Organic Law for Labor Justice and Recognition of Work in the

3 Ley Orgánica de Educación Intercultural.

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Home, passed by the National Assembly in 2015, with votes from the Deputies of AP (El Universo, 2015).

In May 2015, the Correa government, on the grounds that the state assisted private cessation funds of workers in public institutions in the 1999, among others, to the Severance Fund of the Ecuadorian Magisterium (FCME), it granted the administration of teaching savings to IESS, under the section 220 of the “Social Security Act. The amount taken by the correism was approximately $402 million” (Unión Nacional de Educadores, 2015, p. 5).

One of the defaults of correism that most affected the Magisterium was not having paid off pension debts to Ecuadorian teachers. It is emblematic the case of "Cumandá Páez, teacher who died of cancer in the stomach without receiving the stimuli to volunteer retirement. Still alive, she recorded videos criticizing the legal procedures she was required to follow to show that she could no longer work" (Contrato Social por la Educación, p. 4). The Correist government dislocated its responsibility, arguing that the causes were international economic problems such as the "collapse of the price of oil, appreciation of the dollar, slowdown of China, which is the main financier of the planet" (Correa, 2016, p. 8).

2.7 Trade union rights

The new 2008 Constitution provides citizen participation and Good Living as novel mandates that encourage the inclusion of society. In practice these principles are broken, since these “prohibit the stoppage of public services, including education, according to Article 326 numeral 15” (Posso, 2014, p. 110), which violates the rights of public workers to resistance and social struggle.

In 2016 as an objective example of the criminalization of social struggle, "The government of President Rafael Correa dissolved (...) the main guild of state-dependent teachers, the National Union of Educators, arguing that it does not comply with its own statutes and regulations on social organizations." (El Universo, 2016, p. 1), thus it attacked the guild's representativeness, underperforming the ability to defend the teachers' rights. This provision generated protests from UNE and teachers, to which correism launched a sustained propaganda to: "associate the guild of teachers: vagrancy, inoperability, politicization and inefficiency. A position that was otherwise leveraged in a kind of wear and tear " (Posso, 2014, 119).

By 2011, the conflict between the government and the teachers' guild would be reaffirmed, since LOEI restricts "the possibilities of the strike and the social mobilization of the guild, as a mechanism to fight for the rights "(...), fundamentally, it limits the capacity of guild to add the demands of their members" (Posso, 2014, p. 101). This provision undermined the union's right to demand the government by taking out power from the guild, the regulations that were systematically forging were intended to disappear the EUN, withdrawing its legal status as it finally happened.

2.8 Disabling the UNE, the emergence of the network of teachers

Since 2010 in the government discourse "Rafael Correa called for a new UNE" (Isch, 2010,

p. 18), all government actions denote the government's initiative to pursue and disqualify UNE, which had its effect until 2015, in which the Teachers' Network emerges as a new teachers' union created by AP, on which Pinos (2017) stated that: "The government pushed for the creation of a new union called the Teachers' Network for the Educational Revolution, its membership is growing, even if its composition, structure, and influence do not reach the magnitude of the UNE" (p. 6).

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In the RED's first anniversary speech, given by his ideologue Rafael Correa, was stated that: "(...) the teachers enrolled in Ecuador's Network of Teachers not to take care a government or a political party, but to take care of the nation: our children, our teenagers, our youth, and their education" (Correa, 2016, 4). This guild was an intermediary for the entry of any professional, including high schoolers to the public magisterium, a factor that in the following years caused serious effects in the deterioration of educational quality, including acts of harassment and rape of minors, as recorded in Vistazo magazine, according to which "A special commission of the National Assembly determined the political responsibility of former education ministers Augusto Espinosa and Freddy Peñafiel in cases of sexual abuse in schools" (Santos, 2018, pág. 4).

3. Methodology

1. The focus of the study is qualitative, because the variables under study were approached, through an in-depth analysis; the design is non-experimental because variables are not manipulated, it is also characteristic: retrospective and transversal, since it was about happened events; It is descriptive because teacher rights are characterized during the correist government from 2007 to 2017. The phenomenon is analyzed in its socio-natural reality. Finally, it is bibliographic- documentary and field type because it is based on published writings and perceptions of public teachers.

2. A survey was applied to active members of the public teaching. The population was

300 public teachers from different schools in the province of Pichincha. The questionnaire was answered by 33 teachers, 11% of the total, through the Google Drive program, open for 30 days. Sampling was intentional, a method that, as Alaminos (2006) states, “constitutes a valid non-probabilistic strategy for data collection, especially for small and very specific samples” (p. 50). The sample has limited representativeness. Several teachers expressed their decision not to respond for fear of government reprisals. Complementarily, interviews were carried out with experts: teachers of basic and high school education, retirees, former / leaders of the UNE, an advisor to the dissolved National Constituent Assembly and a professor at the Simón Bolívar Andean University.

3. The database was organized and descriptive statistics were processed in the SPSS program, then dynamic analysis was worked on to obtain results, analyze discuss and reach conclusions. Table 1 shows the sampling summary.

	Frequency	Percentage	Accumulated percentage
Femenine	17	51.5	51.5
Masculine	16	48.5	100.0
Total	33	100.0

Table 1. Teachers surveyed by gender

4. Results and discussion

The empirical results were obtained from the survey applied to teachers and interview with experts, the data of the survey was subjected to statistical analysis, consequently the most significant findings that are synthesized are established in the following:

An essential variable for analyzing the status of teaching rights is the freedom of opinion that teachers considered transgressed. Table 2 summarizes the result of the opinion rights

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about transgression item, the most significant responses of which are: 36.4% of teachers surveyed, fully agree, and in the same direction, 33% agree. Integrally, 69.7% of teachers realize that their rights have been transgressive. Only 20% of teachers say they have not been hit by their opinion rights.

	Frequency	Percentage	Accumulated percentage
Totally disagree	2	6.1	6.1
Disagree	5	15.2	21.2
Neither agree nor disagree	3	9.1	30.3
Agree	11	33.3	63.6
Totally agree	12	36.4	100.0
Total	33	100.0

Table 2. Freedom of opinion

A fundamental human right is freedom of assembly and peaceful association for trade union purposes, recognized in the UN Human Rights Declaration and the 2008 Constitution. The consistent results in Table 3 illustrate that 56.6%, more than half of the teachers surveyed, responded to the options: totally agree, that there was an impact on the freedom of assembly for Ecuadorian teachers in the correist regime. A different position expresses 21% of teachers, who consider that there were no impacts on freedom of assembly.

Frequenc y		Accumulated percentage
Frequenc y		Percentage
Totally disagree	2	6.1	6.1
Disagree	5	15.2	21.2
Neither agree nor disagree	7	21.2	42.4
Agree	7	21.2	63.6
Totally agree	12	36.4	100.0
Total	33	100.0

Table 3. Freedom of assembly and teachers´guild

Table 4 summarizes the teaching perceptions of the impact on their trade union rights by the Correist government, which undermined the participation of their historical magisterial guild, the UNE, through policies, regulations, legal actions and aggressive discourse, which ended up causing irreparable involvement of trade union rights. 72.7% of respondents fully agree and agree on the reduction of teaching union rights. An opposing position shows 18% of teachers, who strongly disagree and disagree, since they consider that their trade union rights have not been affected.

	Frequency	Percentage	Accumulated percentage
Totally disagree	2	6.1	6.1
Disagree	4	12.1	18.2
Neither agree nor disagree	3	9.1	27.3
Agree	11	33.3	60.6

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Totally agree	13	39.4	100.0
Total	33	100.0

Table 4. Affectation on the rights of the teachers

Table 5 summarizes the analysis of the conflict between the teaching guild and the government, which made UNE as the responsible of the country's education crisis. The empirical fact shows that 72.5% of teachers investigated align with the choice: totally disagree and disagree, thus expressing their opposition to the fact that they are the drivers of the Ecuadorian educational crisis; while only 15% of teachers were indifferent to the question, eventually 12% of the respondents are aligned with the discourse's statements about the aspect under study.

	Frequency	Percentage	Accumulated percentage
Totally disagree	16	48.5	48.5
Disagree	8	24.2	72.7
Neither agree nor disagree	5	15.2	87.9
Agree	2	6.1	93.9
Totally agree	2	6.1	100.0
Total	33	100.0

Table 5. Educative crisis, UNE, politics

Table 6 shows the analysis of the variable that state if the Correist government improved the labor rights of teachers. In this regard, 66.7% of respondents strongly disagree and disagree, i.e., their perception is contrary to their employment rights having improved. 24% have a position contrary to most responses, who believe that the conditions of their labor rights did improve in the government of Rafael Correa.

	Frequency	Percentage	Accumulated percentage
Totally disagree	13	39.4	39.4
Disagree	9	27.3	66.7
Neither agree nor disagree	3	9.1	75.8
Agree	5	15.2	90.9
Totally agree	3	9.1	100.0
Total	33	100.0

Table 6. Labor rights of teachers

Table 7 summarizes teachers' assessments of UNE participation in Ministry of Education committees to manage processes of entry, mobility and teacher´s promotion. A broad 72.7% lean towards totally agree and agree options that the teachers' union lost the ability to contribute to the decision-making. The government's strategy was to create the so-called professional defense commissions. Only 18.2% believe that the Magisterium retained participation rights.

Frequency	Percentage		Accumulated percentage
Totally disagree	2	6.1	6.1
Disagree	4	12.1	18.2
Neither agree nor disagree	3	9.1	27.3

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Agree	11	33.3	60.6
Totally agree	13	39.4	100.0
Total	33	100.0

Table 7. UNE Participation

The results about the correct application of the LOEI and the teaching regulations which govern the professional development for mobility and promotion are presented in Table 8. 63.6% of teachers respond that they totally disagree and disagree with the fact that correism respected and applied the laws in force. But there is also a considerable 27.3% of teachers, who perceive that there was adequate application of teaching development regulations.

Frequenc y		Accumulated percentage
Frequenc y		Percentage
Totally disagree	11	33.3	33.3
Disagree	10	30.3	63.6
Neither agree nor disagree	3	9.1	72.7
Agree	6	18.2	90.9
Totally agree	3	9.1	100.0
Total	33	100.0

Table 8. LOEI application

One of the most decisive elements for the human well-being is the payment for the work done. In this item, when consulting on a fair teacher remuneration implemented by the correism, reflecting the dedication to the working weekly, as shown in Table 9, 66.7% disagree and totally disagree, i.e., the majority of respondents consider that their government-fixed allowance did not correspond to the increased working day of 25 to 40 hours per week. Prior to the new weekly day, many teachers supplemented their salary with additional contracts, which impoverished the family well-being.

Frequency	Valid percentage		Accumulated percentage
Totally disagree	13	39.4	39.4
Disagree	9	27.3	66.7
Neither agree nor disagree	3	9.1	75.8
Agree	5	15.2	90.9
Totally agree	3	9.1	100.0
Total	33	100.0

Table 9. Salary and working hours

Table 10 summarizes the work flexibility applied in the teacher´s procurement by correism. The main result is that more than 66.7% of teachers say they strongly disagree and disagree with the government implementing permanent teacher procurement and in the application of the processes established by the teaching´s hierarchy. Temporary recruitment increased for teachers without training and were conditioned by power. 24.3% of teachers surveyed adhere to the options fully agree and agree that there was job stability, thus they have not been affected by employment stability rights.

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	Frequency	Percentage	Accumulated percentage
Totally disagree	4	12.1	12.1
Disagree	6	18.2	30.3
Neither agree nor disagree	6	18.2	48.5
Agree	9	27.3	75.8
Totally agree	8	24.2	100.0
Total	33	100.0

Table 10. Working flexibility

Table 11 draws the outcome of the question about teaching retirement and its impact on the policies implemented in the Correist government. The response rate is that almost 70% of teachers opted for the options: totally agree and agree, which reflects that the teacher's retirement is affected by policies implemented from the power. Only a small 18% of teachers consider that there is no transgression to the teaching retirement, i.e., more than half of respondents showed an impact on the right to a worthy retirement of teachers.

	Frequency	Percentage	Accumulated percentage
Totally disagree	3	9.1	9.1
Disagree	3	9.1	18.2
Neither agree nor disagree	4	12.1	30.3
Agree	9	27.3	57.6
Totally agree	14	42.4	100.0
Total	33	100.0

Table 11. Teacher´s retirement

According to the results obtained in the survey regarding the status of teaching rights, as shown in Table 12, there is a relative concordance among the teachers surveyed. 72.7% of respondents, i.e., three out of four teachers, strongly disagree and disagree that the rights of Ecuadorian teachers enacted in the 2008 Constitution, LOEI, LOSEP and the seventh policy of the Ten-Year Plan have been respected during the Correist government.

	Frequency	Percentage	Accumulated percentage
Totally disagree	14	42.4	42.4
Disagree	10	30.3	72.7
Neither agree nor disagree	3	9.1	81.8
Agree	4	12.1	93.9
Totally agree	2	6.1	100.0
Total	33	100.0

Table 12. Respect of the teacher´s rights

According to Table 13 about the education crisis in Ecuador, 73% of teachers surveyed align with the options totally disagree and disagree that the educational crisis in Ecuador is the responsibility of teachers and their guild. The public policies of education are emanating from the government and approved by the National Assembly. The teacher has the responsibility to apply curricular processes in the school. The teaching guild they have permanently made educational proposals to the Ministry of Education that were not accepted, and rather they applied neoliberal policies.

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Frequency	Percentage		Accumulated percentage
Totally disagree	16	48.5	48.5
Disagree	8	24.2	72.7
Neither agree nor disagree	5	15.2	87.9
Agree	2	6.1	93.9
Totally agree	2	6.1	100.0
Total	33	100.0

Table 13. Teaching perception about the educative crisis

Table 14 condenses teaching perceptions that indicates that during the Correist government the Ecuadorian Magisterium suffered sanctions and even dismissals from work. It is noted that most of the respondents, about 64% fully agree and agree to fear repression. It can therefore be inferred that teachers were afraid of labor sanctions, this factor determined that the vast majority demobilize, focus on complying with provisions of their educational authorities and even isolate themselves from other teachers, so as not to be persecuted for alleged or rights-defense acts. The correist government undoubtedly implemented an extremely repressive and sanctioning control policy for all teachers as a state policy.

	Frequency	Percentage	Accumulate d percentage
Totally disagree	3	9.1	9.1
Disagree	3	9.1	18.2
Neither agree nor disagree	6	18.2	36.4
Agree	7	21.2	57.6
Totally agree	14	42.4	100.0
Total	33	100.0

Table 14. Teacher perception by fear repression

The qualitative information confirming the data provided by the survey was obtained through interviews applied to Ecuadorian academics linked to the phenomenon under study, i.e., the deterioration of teaching rights during the 2007-2017 period. The analysis and interpretation of the interview was implemented through qualitative procedures to analyze ´raw´ texts, such as the keyword method in context (KWIC)," (Fernández-Núñez, 2006, p. 3). The KeyWord In Context (KWIC) or in-place keyword is relevant for working with synonyms and antonyms, based on qualitative and subjective data. Interview data were encoded in a table with the expert responses, then individual analysis was performed by question, as well as a comprehensive analysis of the data and interpretation; the most relevant aspects found are:

· The experts interviewed mostly express that there was a deterioration in the teachers' opinions, as well as in their trade union, including threats, persecution and sanctions on teachers.

· While most of the interviewees highlight their struggle for the public teaching rights in the union situation of the UNE in the correist moment, it is valued as an antagonistic social organization with the government. Because of its firm and consistent position, UNE was abused by the political power, which went so far as to be illegalized and seized from its assets. At the same time as political action by the government and its political movement, the network of professors attached to the

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government was created to counter the UNE. On the teaching guild, most of the interviewees listed as a momentary organization of the Correist government.

· Interviewees also highlight as a relevant aspect the sanctions of opposition teachers attacked by the government, while some indicate that they protest due to economic problems, other teachers for opposing the education system that has not changed or by being members of the UNE. Public teachers characterize the correist government as totalitarian-fascist against all forms of social struggle, focusing mainly on teachers and public servants.

· A factor widely explained by the experts was the elimination of salary components in the teacher payment. Wage reduction is a form of state savings, and also a form of over-exploitation.

5. Conclusions

About the objective outlined in the article, the main conclusions are presented: The evidence shows that a left discourse was enacted during the Correist government, contrary to its repressive practice, since it affected the teaching right to enjoy quality of life in its professional and trade union performance, i.e., the revaluation of the teaching profession was only a political slogan. Teaching labor rights in the Correist government effectively had manifestations of disrespect to: international human rights agreements, as well as domestic legal regulations, and may even have committed human rights violations of Ecuadorian teachers.

The correist time was characterized by the violation of the teaching rights of: trade union, resistance organization, freedom of opinion, wage rights and the right to work. Other educational rights affected are: professional development, mobility, retirement.

Undoubtedly the decade of correist implemented a policy of extremely repressive and sanctioning control for the public teachers, as a state policy. According to Sánchez, 2016, UNESCO, 2015 and McKinsey & Company, 2008, adequate attention to the teaching sector has a very strong impact on the educational quality of a country. Providing the state wellness to each teacher so that he/she can enjoy an adequate standard of living, the states generates a high performance that contributes to the development of the society. The Correist practice contradicts what has been said, because the actions deteriorated the life of the Ecuadorian teacher, demotivated the teacher, and impoverished the Ecuadorian education.

The harassment and illegalization of UNE, as well as the creation and support of the network of Teachers, had an impact on teaching, as teachers felt unprotected, there was professional immobilization, relocation and even dismissal. A number of cases of correist against Ecuadorian teachers, which will surely be done in the future, are still to be clarified.

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