Total renovation, the main demand at the Conservatory

Yesterday marked one month of the student strike at the National Conservatory of Music (CNM), where uncertainty prevails between students and teachers. What was once a vigorous training space for professional musicians is now silent, with deserted hallways and dim auditoriums.

One of the most serious reasons for the conflict, said Alexis Martínez Gasca, president of the CNM Student Society, is that the study plan is obsolete; has not been significantly updated for almost 20 years.

Given this situation, Martínez Gasca added in an interview with The Daythe student community decided to raise its voice to demand, among other things, “an urgent renewal in the school’s pedagogical and administrative approaches, since we need a more current plan that responds to the demands of the contemporary context.

For students, this gap compromises their training in the face of current challenges; reflects an alarming disconnection with the pedagogical needs of the present, where technology and digital transformation play a key role. The educational model is bureaucratic and lengthy, which discourages many from completing their studies.

In 2010, this newspaper documented that in 2007 the CNM underwent a profound rehabilitation and an ambitious academic plan was put together, which included the purification of enrollment, the reactivation of scholarships and the arrival of the best professors in the country.

The then director, Ricardo Miranda, described the institution as tip of the pyramid of the quality options that exist in Mexico for the study of music and explained that he had had to work very hard to rescue the conservatory from the bad administrations of the late 20th century and the beginning of the new century.

Miranda explained that nearly 100 million pesos were then invested in renovating the bathrooms, changing the lighting in lounges and concert halls, as well as replacing the entire quarry.

In 2010 there was an enrollment of 798 students, and just over 120 were on scholarships. When Carlos Chávez and Mario Pani planned the construction of this building, they dreamed of a school of 600 students.detailed Ricardo Miranda (The Day, 3/5/2010).

According to Alexis Martínez, in the 2021-2022 school year, only 171 students were enrolled in the total of 24 degrees taught at the CNM.

Updating the curriculum is not the only problem. Working conditions within the institution have also been the subject of complaints, stressed Martínez, who assures that “there cannot be an educational improvement without an audit that eradicates the corrupt and abusive practices that have prevailed in the administration.

There will be no point in updating the curriculum if the same people, with the same practices, continue to be in charge. There are teachers who do not even attend classes, others who mistreat students, and some have been accused of sexual harassment, without the complaints having been adequately addressed.

Throughout this month of strike, he added, the repercussions on academic training have been evident. Programs such as piano, violin and guitar, which require daily practice and constant pedagogical accompaniment, have seen their progress halted.

The students prepared a request list that has increased to 66 points; In this they prioritized five urgent demands, among them, the resignation of teacher Silvia Navarrete, who left her position a few days ago, although the young people stated that their main objective was not asking for his head, but opening the way towards a democratization process in the election of the new director.

The CNM Student Society reported that on November 4, at 10 a.m., they will meet with representatives of the federal Ministry of Culture and the National Institute of Fine Arts and Literature at the Bosque Cultural Center to open communication channels and look for solutions to their demands.