The Minister of Education, Maruja Gorday de Villalobos, reported on Thursday, November 30, that classes in schools, that were affected by the teachers' strike, could resume Monday, December 4.

The Minister announced that starting at 8:00 am Thursday the salaries of some 17,000 educators who were retained for not teaching classes will begin to be released, as part of the actions to begin a dialogue with the teaching unions to end the strike.

“It would be Monday, December 4,” stated the head of Meduca as the date to return to classes.

“The idea is that today we can, sit down [with the teachers] and define the issues of recovery and the days to pay, linked to the days that the teachers were unemployed,” said Gorday de Villalobos on TVN.

The Minister recalled that one of the sectors most affected by the stoppages was education and that it is not about who wins and who loses. “If we have to give in and we have to sit down, through an agreement to terminate the strike, we are willing to do so,” she pointed out.

One of the conditions that the leaders had expressed to sit down and talk with the educational authorities was that the withheld salary of some 17,000 teachers, corresponding to the second half of November, be paid. And then, later finalize the strike settlement to return to the classrooms.

Gorday de Villalobos said that once the procedures were completed to reactivate the payments, the invitation was sent to the leaders of the unions to meet Thursday at noon in the offices of  the Ministry “The idea is for us to do the run and be able to recover and restart classes on Monday, December 4.”

One of the points to be discussed would be the recovery of classes and although there are several options, Gorday de Villalobos said that the school calendar would not extend until the end of January or the beginning of February.

A sector of teachers has already stated that they are not willing to pay time by time because the school calendar is extended until January 15, 2024, since the school year ends on December 29 with graduations.

The teachers went on strike on October 23  to reject the State contract with the Canadian company First Quantum which was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.