Today is not a date to celebrate, but to commemorate and thank those men and women who are the trainers of other professionals and the coming generations.
By La Patilla – Jesús Quintero
Jan 15, 2023
However, at least in the last decade, the laudable work carried out by teachers has been trampled on and belittled with very poor salaries and dismal working conditions.
With remunerations that are not enough to survive in the midst of the critical economic situation that the country is going through, where the salary is paid in bolivars, but the costs of goods and services are linked to or paid in foreign currency.
Thus, the monthly average salary of 20.00 U.S. dollars, or its equivalent of Bs. 420,00 in national currency is the scarce salary of the classroom teacher, who despite his years of service, dedication and mysticism lives condemned to be part of the lowest paid professionals of the Venezuelan public administration.
You have to decide between “Buying some products from the basic (food) basket to alleviate hunger or buying shoes and clothes on sale to attend the working day in schools and high schools and fulfill the sacred duty of teaching,” said a teacher with more than 20 years of service in public education in the state of Mérida.
A teacher must place its needs on the balance and prioritize them according to his or her economic capacity, counteracting the inflationary phenomenon that pulverizes more and more the purchasing power of teachers.
“The salary as a teacher is not enough for me, during the day I work in an educational institution, and at night as a security guard, to compensate for the (poor) remuneration and get enough to bring food to my house,” said another teacher from Mérida.
The right to a decent salary as established by the National Constitution remained on paper and nothing resembles the reality that exists in the country where teachers survive day to day with the little they receive.
A struggle of years, in the streets, with protests, facing intimidation, persecution of the educational union and that despite every threat teachers do not faint and is revived in the streets of Mérida with peaceful protest days to raise their voices and be heard.
In Mérida, different unions have come together to fight united and demand dignified salaries for the education sector with weekly agendas of peaceful takeovers of public spaces to make visible the problems that afflict them and have an impact on the community.
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Read More: La Patilla – Teaching with an empty stomach and broken shoes: the reality of the Venezuelan teacher
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