Paraguay
Beto Ovelar Called for Demanding Results from Teachers After PISA and Rekindled the Debate Over Oversight of Congress
The senator linked salary increases in the teaching sector to the possibility of demanding better performance. ABC Color noted that the proposal once again raises the question of what mechanisms evaluate lawmakers.
Senator Silvio “Beto” Ovelar, chairman of the Senate Finance and Budget Committee, said the results of the PISA tests compel Congress and the Ministry of Education and Sciences to toughen demands on teacher performance and to review what measures should be adopted to improve educational standards.
According to ABC Color, Ovelar said in the Senate that in 2016 a teacher earned around G. 1,780,000 per shift and defended the salary increase scheme applied after that period. In that context, he argued that there were no conditions then to demand better results, but that the situation changed with successive increases.
The lawmaker said that, after that improvement, Congress now has the authority to be more demanding about results. He also acknowledged a significant lag in the PISA data and a gap between students at public and private institutions.
According to ABC Color, Ovelar recalled that teacher leaders and authorities such as Enrique Riera, then Minister of Education, and Santiago Peña, at that time Minister of Finance, took part in the talks on salary equalization.
The outlet noted that the senator’s remarks open a debate about the Legislative Branch itself. It pointed out that senators and deputies went from earning G. 32,774,840 to G. 37,900,000 per month as of January 2025, following an increase included in the 2025 national budget and approved by Congress.
ABC Color also recalled that on August 26 Ovelar had publicly acknowledged that the salary increase stripped lawmakers of the moral authority to question demands from other sectors. On that occasion, the senator said the raise carried a symbolic and ethical cost for legislators.
In that vein, the newspaper argued that while teachers are exposed to educational indicators, there is no equivalent external evaluation to measure the performance of senators and deputies, nor a mechanism linking their salaries to legislative results.
Sources
About this note. Written by El Notero with the assistance of artificial intelligence, based on what was published by the cited outlet. El Notero did not conduct its own reporting on this event.
