Socialist Students consider the extinction of the Ministry of Higher Education to be a “wrong option”

You Socialist Students criticized, this Friday, theextinction of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Educationconsidering that this is a “wrong option” and taken contrary to “the appeals of academic associations”.

“Socialist Students criticize the new government’s decision to abolish the Ministry of Technology, Science and Higher Education, decision that was taken against the vast majority of student representative bodies at national level”, states this structure of the Socialist Youth.

In a statement, the young socialists accuse the new PSD/CDS-PP Government of having gone against “the appeals from academic associations so that this wouldn’t happen” and “ignoring their concerns and opinions”.

“The extinction of the Ministry of Technology, Science and Higher Education contributes nothing to the development of our country. This is a wrong option and the extinction of this ministry does nothing to solve the problems higher education or science”, they criticize.

The structure of the new Government, known on Thursday, does not provide for an autonomous ministry for higher education, an area that will be integrated into the Ministry of Education, Science and Innovation.

“The new PPD/PSD government decided to do away with the Ministry of Technology, Science and Higher Education, creating a super ministry with too many responsibilities, overloaded in areas of governance and ignoring the specificities of each of these areas. Luís Montenegro decided to eliminate a ministry that responded and attended to our higher education and its problems”, defend these young people.

For Socialist Students, this constitutes “a setback” instead of “advance in valuing students, deepen responses in student housing, fees and mental health”.

“In our opinion, the science and technology are two essential areas for the economic and social development of our country. Having a public policy for science is crucial so that we can increase the value of our economy. The academy and the university are an engine of progress and development for our country”, they maintain, in the statement sent to journalists.

The Socialist Students consider that “acBuilding a better country has always been done with studentsalongside students and listening carefully to their demands” and that “the future cannot be built without public policies designed specifically to respond to the problems of technological disruption, science or higher education”.

“We will continue to pay attention to the daydreams of the PPD/PSD government but also to present solutions that respond to the concrete problems of students, researchers, scientists and scholarship holders”, they guarantee, pledging to “defend quality public higher education in which knowledge, science and technology are inseparable.”

The President of the Republic accepted on Thursday the list of 17 ministers proposed by the prime minister-designate, Luís Montenegro, for the XXIV Constitutional Government.

In the new organization, the Government will have a Ministry of Youth and Modernization, which will be led by Margarida Balseiro Lopes, and a Ministry of Education, Science and Innovation, which will be supervised by Fernando Alexandre.

The inauguration of the ministers of the XXIV Constitutional Government is scheduled for Tuesday and that of the secretaries of State for Friday.