Not only is it not right; it is criminal. Starving here is both an adjective and a verb and the Bolivarian revolution and every single person who has supported it are to be blamed for this cultural genocide. In the last two decades the most outrageous excuses and brainwashing strategies have been used to justify the criminal destruction of Venezuela’s educational system. It has been part of a well-orchestrated plan to demoralize the middle class, thwart social mobility, and make sure that a whole generation of Venezuelans would be ignorant, fearful, and poor enough to pose zero threat to the regime that turned them into famished poppets.
The sign reads: With hunger one can't either teach or learn
Even though teachers are famous world-wide for being overworked and underpaid, I doubt teacher anywhere else in the world are as fucked as Venezuelan teachers. Their salary at some point before the current monetary reconversion was as low as $3 a month. These days it is about $25 a month for most teachers. On top of that, teachers, like most around the world must pitch in for any academic and extra academic expense (from supplies, to first aid items, boards to decorations, handcrafts, and shows costumes). Unlike most teachers around the world, ours do not have medical insurance, transportation, or any kind of monetary or logistics incentive to fulfill their duties.
The sign reads: Misserable humiliating salary; less than $30. Teachers and workers fighting. Help, World!
As if that were not enough, teachers have to deal with the political and social pressure of a militaristic government that openly declares war to any worker who dares to go on strikes or protest to demand better working conditions. Teachers face threats that include unjustified transfers from working places, termination of contracts without any compensation, prison, and/or violence against them or their relatives. The government has started a plan that attempts to substitute any teacher who refuses to work until their salary demands are met. There has been clear evidence that the government does not plan to give any significant salary increase. They would rather fire all the rebel teachers and have faithful and docile “advanced students” or anyone willing to perform as a teacher in their place before they admit their responsibility and show weakness in their handling of the masses.
Image of one of the many protests here in Cumaná, shared by colleagues via Whatsapp
Even though most parents have this time agreed that teachers’ situation is simply unbearable and that their children deserve well paid and well trained teachers, a good sector of our society, which is faithful to the regime, puts pressure on teachers to end protests and come back to the classrooms, even if that is simply humanly impossible. Teachers are literally dying doing their jobs. They don’t eat well, they can’t afford medical care and they have no future ahead either for themselves or their children.
Those who support the government quote the students’ right to get an education and the teachers’ duty to provide it. Those who have some common sense invoke basic human rights and something called the constitution, which in Venezuela was rewritten to revamp the State and make it big enough to guarantee every single right possible. Populism does not care about economic viability. They just aim at stimulating the masses’ emotions and feelings and a big State that would give you EVERYTHING sounded just great. Now that reality slaps us in the face, it is easier for the regime and its followers to just appeal to lame patriotic rhetoric and demand sacrifice.
As far as the goverment is concered all these people are simple terrorists who want to distabilize the government and hurt the sons of the revolution.
Venezuelan teachers already sacrificed enough. They aged 20 years faster. They lost their physical and mental health, any possibility of professional development, any possibility of becoming middle class, and any possibility of giving their children something close to a decent life.
Thus, the right of children to an education is and will always be subordinated to the right of teachers to have all what is necessary to guarantee the best education possible: quality training, great salaries, great infrastructure, small classes, and accountability that could lead to professional development or removal from the system if they were not up to the task.
Thanks for your reading
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