The harsh economic situation that Venezuela faces is very well known to those who decided to dedicate their lives to teaching, fulfilling the sacred role of educating the new generations.
By La Patilla – Jesús Albino / Jefferson Civira / Luz Dary Depablos / Yanitza Martínez / Walter Obregón
Oct 05, 2022
The Chavista regime boasts a lot about the supposed worth they give to teachers, but the reality is that they have been marginalized, mistreated and are frightfully underpaid.
With the enactment of the new provisions of the “Oficina Nacional de Presupuesto” (National Budget Office, Onapre), the labor benefits that the teachers union had achieved for years, were pulverized.
And a dramatic consequence of this education debacle in Venezuela is the high rate of teacher desertion: in 2018, the national payroll exceeded one million teachers; today it does not reach even 700,000 educators.
How are some teachers in the interior of the country doing to surf the inflationary tsunami? The team of correspondents from lapatilla.com in the states of Anzoátegui, Barinas, Lara, Monagas and Táchira collected some testimonies that show the difficult situation that many are going through.
Táchira: “More than 30 thousand teachers have deserted”
As in the rest of the country, in this Andean State around 35,000 teachers survive doing other jobs for which they were not trained, while more than 30,000 teachers have deserted in the last five years. All this caused by low wages and the poor state of the educational infrastructure, indicated Ildemaro Useche, President of the Venezuelan Federation of Teachers, Táchira branch.
For the union leader, the Onapre has attacked and violated the rights of educators in this border state, since the signing of the second collective agreement there still is an outstanding debt of 280%.
The representative of the Tachira union recalled that in November 2021, the Nicolás Maduro regime granted a 61% salary raise to all teachers in the country, and since then the regional government in Táchira owes that raise, specifically since the month of December of last year.
In his opinion, the debt that the regime has accumulated with each teacher is approximately 1,000 dollars, and the salary should be 1,200 dollars a month as income in the lowest category of teacher.
He pointed out that in the case of teachers with higher ranks, they should receive income that goes between 10% and 25% above those 1,200 dollars.
Obviously, this proposal would be viable “if we were in a country with a stable economy, with a different economic model and with other actors,” pointed out Mr. Useche.
Likewise, he highlighted that enrollment has decreased in recent years for multiple reasons. The regime since 2018 has declared that there are about 8 million enrolled students, because it does not dare to recognize the serious problem of school dropouts. It would put in evidence the incapacity with which they have handled education in the country.
Barinas: “My salary is not enough to cover basic needs”
Xiomara Morillo, President of the Venezuelan Union of Teachers (Sinvema) in Barinas State, explained that on the subject salaries, the situation continues to be critical, because with all the price increases (inflation) in dollars, incomes have been proportionally reduced.
Of course, this affects all teachers, as the government has violated article 91 of the Bolivarian Constitution of Venezuela, where it is specified that all workers must enjoy decent and sufficient wages to cover the needs of their family group.
“Wages are far below reality, and we can see it in the calculation of the Basic Basket of the Cenda (Centro de Documentación y Análisis para los Trabajadores, Documentation and Analysis Center for Workers), which with only 60 products has a cost of 3,178.12 bolívares (459, 27 dollars), that is, it increased 15.3% with respect to the month of July (of this year)”, he stated.
As for the bonuses, the teachers are owed all what is related to clause nº 56 of the second national collective contract, according to the salary tabulator this debt is 280%, “and no response has been obtained from the Minister of Education, Yelitze Santaella.”
The Onapre directive also affected premiums and bonuses with a cut of more than 50%, among which are: geographic, seniority, professionalization, apart from a series of benefits that were reduced with the enactment of that measure.
Angely Camacho, a state teacher with 15 years of service, expressed concern: “With my current salary, it is not enough to cover the basic needs of myself and my family.”
With a family load of five members, this teacher has been forced to carry out extra activities: she sells, through the Marketplace, manicure and pedicure systems, and thus she is able to cover an important part of the family expenses.
Lara: “It’s hard to receive students that have not had breakfast”
The teachers of Lara state do not escape the Venezuelan economic reality and today they are victims of the inefficient actions of Nicolás Maduro’s regime.
In this region, the educators’ union sacrificed part of their vacation days to protest and demand full payment of the vacation bonus from the Ministry of Education.
Although they achieved the total payment of the aforementioned bonus, the National Budget Office annihilated this benefit by lowering the percentages of all the premiums, which directly affects the general salary of teachers.
This was explained by Professor Luzbelly Quintero, a member of the Venezuelan Union of Teachers of the Lara State (Sinvemal), who also stressed that the devaluation turned the salary to “salt and water”, currently placing it close to 35 dollars a month, while a teacher without professionalization would earn about 25 dollars.
The meager salary that educators currently receive has forced them to perform other tasks after working hours. Such is the case of teacher Isabel Porteles, who has had to learn about confectionery in her free time to increase her income and thus pay for the university studies of her two children.
She comments that in addition to facing her own difficulties for not having a decent wage that allows them a decent life, they must overcome adverse situations within educational institutions, especially in rural areas of the region.
“It is hard to receive students that have not had breakfast. One would like to have the resources to be able to help them, but this salary hardly gives us enough to survive ourselves.”
She mentioned that the school where she works, located in the Bobure township of the Iribarren Municipality, does not meet the minimum conditions to work. For example, the drinking water service is irregular, which makes the development of academic activities in the institution very difficult.
Monagas: “It’s sad when classes start and I don’t have means to buy my children’s supplies”
For the General Secretary of the Venezuelan Federation of Teachers in Monagas, Odalys Levell, there are no conditions to start the new 2022-2023 school year.
The union leader emphasizes the low salaries that teachers receive, for starters not enough to pay for the public transport fare that was increased to 3 bolívares.
She assures that many educators must take up to four rides in a day, which implies at least 12 bolívares per day, which, at the exchange rate at the time of publishing this report, is equivalent to 1.5 dollars.
Ms. Levell points out that they continue to fight for collective bargaining and adds that they are owed 280% since 2018, an amount that has not been paid by the Ministry of Education.
In addition to that, they do not have hospitalization, surgery and maternity (HCM) insurance, as well as the funeral service insurance.
To exemplify the pathetic situation endured by some teachers, she cites the case of a teacher who is her neighbor. “She is seriously ill and may die in the next few days. Her relatives do not have enough money for a decent burial.”
In terms of health, educators have felt a great deterioration in their own flesh, due to the fact that the Ministry of Education has an immense outstanding debt with private clinics, for which both teachers and administrative and labor personnel cannot use their insurance policies in the clinics, as they are not accepted.
“There is a very large debt with the clinics and that is why they do not accept teachers or any personnel from the educational sector. Teachers have to go to the public hospital (government run), where there are absolutely no supplies nor medications and consequently, they have to pay out of pocket for all these medical supplies, as well as medications,” explained Levell.
The drama of being a teacher in Venezuela is also evident in the vicissitudes that they face even to dress with dignity: “With what spirit does a teacher go to start the school year when he does not have enough to buy a pair of shoes, and the ones he does have are all worn out? I say it properly, because that is what I have seen in the meetings that it are held in the Educational Zone,” Levell stated.
Yubisay Contreras has been a preschool teacher for 19 years. She has had to find a way to earn extra income by selling cakes from her house to help her family, since she claims that her salary is insufficient to meet basic needs. Even with what she gets from the sale of her cakes, it is hard for her to buy all the products in the basic food basket.
“Four years ago I decided to start this business, not only baking cakes but also cupcakes that I sell at school and here from home. What I am paid as a teacher is not enough for anything and it is quite sad when classes start and I have no way to buy supplies or uniforms for my children,” Yubisay said ruefully.
And so she continues to recount his tragedy: “I recently read in the news that the Minister of Education, Yelitze Santaella, was at the UN exposing the conditions of education (in Venezuela) and said that teachers are the priority for the government, but I think that’s all on the contrary, when educators with so much experience receive such low salaries that we must have an extra job to find a way to have an additional income.”
Anzoátegui: “Not even death is worthy, we have nothing”
Maira Marín, president of the Venezuelan Union of Teachers in the entity, rejected that the national government plays with the needs of educators. “They do not give us a raise, they take away benefits and we are tired of the violation of the rights of teachers.”
Arcilia Hernández is a classroom teacher and she says that she finds it necessary to become a seller of anything to survive. “We teachers don’t even have to take care of our own children, we have the raw need.”
“I sell “empanadas” (a type of usually deep fried small dough pie with diverse fillings) at the door of my house, on the street, I can’t do anything else, find a way to survive because I pay rent (for her home),” Hernández confessed with a hint of sadness in her voice.
The teacher said that before she collaborated with her students, she always had pencils and other spare supplies for what she calls “temporary children”. “Now I don’t even have money for the fare and I have to walk to work, ever thinking about how I will solve the day’s meal.”
Arcilia remembers that education in Venezuela used to be synonymous with stability. “Today we must even beg money to bury a colleague. Not even death is worthy, we have nothing.”
And as if to make it clear who bears the responsibility for these hardships suffered by teachers, Arcila reflects: “Those who are in power today, I remind them with great respect: a teacher was the one who taught them to read and write, a teacher was the one who gave them the first tool to get to where they are. They should have never forgotten that.”
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