In the years that this government claims, but does not manage in the same way, the Otto Krause Technical School was created in 1897 , the oldest technological education institution in the country, founded with the aim of contributing to the industrialization process of the country, whose building was inaugurated in 1909 at Bartolomé Mitre 1314 in the City of Buenos Aires. However, it is less known that, in 1910, during the celebrations of the National Centennial, the “Nicanor Ezeiza” Agricultural High School was founded and remains active 340 km from the then Federal Capital, to technically support national agricultural development. Field and Industry were in the national thought and the governments that followed were busy in the creation of schools of arts and trades, which provided qualified labor for the national manufacturing development and the Argentine naval industry.
These were times when the State considered it essential to finance specialized public education aimed at training technical staff in a growing country to meet domestic demand and exports.
The vision of those who settled in those years in the middle of the countryside at the aforementioned Nicanor Ezeiza School was remarkable, established on more than 700 hectares between Cnel. Vidal and Balcarce donated by the aforementioned Nicanor, where after three years the student was awarded the diploma of "Livestock Expert" that enabled him to work and after five the title of Agricultural Bachelor that originally allowed direct access to the University of Buenos Aires and La Plata for the careers of Agricultural Engineering and Veterinary Medicine. Now, Don Nicanor, was a man who also intuited the vicissitudes of Argentina in the will he specified that, if the establishment was closed, it should return to his heirs and this has allowed him to carry out his activities without interruption for 114 years. That is, a will that is Milei's proof.
The children of the farmers, ranchers, and professionals in these disciplines studied at this school, receiving support, education, food, and free housing, first from the Ministry of Education and then from the Ministry of Agrarian Affairs of the Province of Buenos Aires. The study programs were applied theoretically and practically with the notes from the aforementioned universities, and the most advanced technology of that time was available -which the private rural establishments themselves did not have- training the agricultural technicians and practitioners -at their different levels- that the Argentine countryside needed; producing -in addition- the most daring social integration in those years, which we now refer to as "social inclusion" and all the food for the students -except for salt- was produced at the school with the necessary collaboration of the students themselves.
The creation of these public colleges and technical schools was so advanced that even today the current government does not understand the importance of its creation and maintenance and is preparing to dismantle the National Fishing School "Comandante Luis Piedra Buena" created by the Province of Buenos Aires in 1961; transformed into an Adult Training Center for Fishing Skippers in 1973 by the Ministry of Education of the Province of Buenos Aires and transferred to the Argentine Navy in 1977 (Law 22.392); that is, following the words of General Manuel Belgrano that " A State without fishing can do nothing on the sea " 63 years ago -with greater or lesser difficulties- progress was made in supporting Argentine fishing activity that began the process of national industrialization and exportation.
Various courses are taught here for Fishing Pilots, Fishing Masters, Naval Machine Drivers and Naval Motorists, and Fishing Captains.
The importance of this initiative is eloquent, given that Japan itself - a country with a thousand-year-old maritime and fishing culture - supported Argentina financially for the construction and development of the new School, completed in 1985; its equipment; the donation of a training ship and technical transfer in the areas of Fishing Technology, Fishing Arts, Electronic Fishing and Navigation Equipment and Audiovisual Aids and the development of training seminars. The Japanese government should also be given explanations for such an absurd decision.
To close this professional fishing training establishment is a sign of gross ignorance and a manifest inability to manage the training of key personnel for national maritime and fishing production. It repeats the very serious error of the government of 1990, “ a branch that stops, a branch that closes ”; ignoring that a large part of the professionals and technicians who drive, crew and catch in the almost 800 fishing vessels that fly the national flag generate wealth for Argentina, in addition to exercising national sovereignty in a Maritime State and, far from closing it, other technical courses should be incorporated that are essential for the processing, industrialization and trade of the fishing products that Argentina exports with retentions and all kinds of taxes to the most demanding markets in the world, whose “developed” countries carry out this activity in a subsidized way (China, Spain, Korea, United Kingdom, Taiwan, Russia, etc.). Complex practices such as capture, filleting, etc. that entered the country through Belgian, Italian and Spanish immigration are transmitted orally and should be a cause for concern to facilitate the population and industrial development of the Patagonian coast.
The issue would be resolved with proper management and by considering who the direct beneficiaries of this training are - provinces, municipalities, businessmen, unions, suppliers, students, teachers - and calling them to agree on the destination of the funds from the capture rights that should be applied to finance research, training and control and not to fill the coffers of the State or the bureaucratic and centralist Federal Fisheries Council, whose Application Authority and Council structure keeps irrational sums - compared to the administrative percentage applied by any company - among others, to finance the trips of officials to international fairs, when it is the businessmen who buy and sell, which is why the State receives significant taxes and retentions that hinder the competition of Argentine products in the world. Our invader - the United Kingdom - meanwhile manages the 250,000 annual tons of fishing resources that foreign vessels illegally capture in Argentine waters of the Malvinas in two containers.
It is not a question of whether this or that union takes charge of the National Fishing School, but rather of the government efficiently managing the necessary education, in agreement with the direct and indirect beneficiaries, in the training and development of experts for the growth of the Nation and for the dignity of professionals, technicians and maritime, fishing and naval workers who contribute to the generation of wealth.
Manage and don't close, which is the typical process of someone who lacks the intelligence and imagination to grow any activity.
Dr. Cesar Augusto Lerena
South Atlantic and Fisheries expert - former Secretary of State.
President of the Center for Latin American Fisheries Studies (CESPEL).
Web: cesarlerena.com.ar
October 7, 2024
