Greetings, this is my participation in the OCD Community Boost Contest # 6: from the Highlighting Home Edders community, I believe that education is one of the most important aspects in my family, my older sister Hive account@mayoly1 and I both graduated as graduates in education in Venezuela, she in 2010 and I in 2012, however unfortunately when the economic crisis in my country became stronger, education was one of the most affected areas, we both decided on different paths, she chose to pursue her career However, I did not want to be an accomplice of a government system that does not value teachers nor does it think about children who need education.

When I entered the university, the school teachers had a decent standard of living even when the salaries were low, that is, they could access credits to buy a house or a car and pay them in monthly installments that were deducted from their salary. In the ministry of public education, likewise teachers with more advanced studies such as masters and doctorates, as well as university-level professors had a salary that allowed them to have a more or less comfortable life, many teachers preferred to work in public institutions although the salary was lower because they had health insurance and some other advantages in their contract, but the crisis quickly put an end to the teachers' hopes and a teacher's standard of living became one of the lowest.

One of the issues that disturbed me the most was the unsuccessful support that was given to the education career, because at the university where I studied, when they opened the career, 1,300 people enrolled, but seeing that there were so many the same institution took over to discourage most in various ways, in the end we graduated 800 teachers. But at the same time, the government opened another public university that worked under the form of Mission, where people who graduated from high school were admitted through the mission system, as well as people who had not been able to get a place in one. traditional university, I consider that the problem was a lack of planning, that is, at the end of about 4 or 5 years there were thousands of graduates in education and few institutions to work in, that is, there were few schools, teachers who were lucky enough to get a public office in a school, they had to spend even up to two years or more without receiving their first salary, that is, working for free so that the government finally gave them a permanent contract. All these things discouraged me from pursuing my career, but the worst would come later, since currently most teachers have left the country due to the crisis, salaries are the worst at historical levels and I just wonder, if education is a pillar of society why are teachers so neglected? The crisis in my country affects everyone, but today with my sister and being able to ask her questions, I will focus largely on the teachers in my country, that is, the cost of a teacher's living.

Teachers who have a permanent contract with the Ministry of Education of my country, have one of the lowest salaries, also the salary is not the same for everyone, because there are different types of teacher and salary that corresponds to him, if he is a professional teacher with specialization in an area, for example a professor of history, if he is a professor who exercises an administrative position, such as the director of an institution, if he is a professor with master's, postgraduate or doctorate degrees.

In this sense, the best salary for a teacher at the primary education level to date is 3,600,000 Bolívares biweekly, today April 7, 2021 the parallel dollar that governs the Venezuelan economy is $ 1 = 2,161. 250 Bolívares, that is, the highest paid first-year teacher for the government charges $ 1.66 every fifteen days. Can you believe it?

While an hourly teacher, that is, teachers who work at the secondary level and are specialists each in an area, charge 25,000 Bolívares per hour and the maximum number of hours they can work is 36 hours per week, that is, 900,000 Bolívares per week. which is equivalent to $ 0.42 per week today.

Private institutions have been the object of much criticism from the government, however one of the most verifiable ways to recognize the educational problem is to see how a private institution works. The institution where my sister works is a secondary school that has 10 sections, gives education to 402 students, employs only 11 teachers and on average there are 40 students per section, they pay 70,000 Bolívares per hour that is $ 0.032, also each student must pay a monthly fee of $ 6.

In another private institution but at the elementary level, one of the best in my city, which is run by a nuns, the monthly fee that each student must pay is $ 12 and the salary they pay the teachers is 40 $ per month, this being one of the highest currently, but it is also nothing compared to the prices of basic foods that I will talk about later.

How much is your children's education worth? As a mother, I believe that education is the most valuable thing I can give my little one, however, before the pandemic hit, my son had very few face-to-face classes at school, due to the teachers constantly protesting against wage injustice. They have every right to do so, but for example I cannot pay $ 12 a month in the private institution that I spoke about earlier, so what do children who do not receive formal education do, because they can get by with what we parents can teach them at home, very unfair is about people who work full hours or who cannot teach their children.

Much has been said that the government is currently providing the tools for teachers to continue teaching distance classes and for parents to make their home a school, but to what extent is this true, when the costs of basic mobile phone service are very high and the government pays teachers a lower salary at that cost. For example, the cost of a basic mobile plan with data to make use of the internet in the national company, that is, the government company, is 2,300,000 Bolívares, that is, a little more than $ 1. The price of a basic mobile data plan from a private company that has better signal amplitude in my country costs 3,838,000 Bolívares, that is, $ 1.77 per month. Those who read me will think that these amounts are very low in their country, but the problem here is my country is the devaluation of the national currency against the dollar or foreign currency.

I live in a small city, here small constructions abound and there are few buildings, renting a small house costs around $ 40 to $ 50 per month, while renting a room in a residence has $ 2 per month. The problem of insufficient water and electricity services affects both poor housing and those with better conditions.

One of the great problems that Venezuelans face is fuel shortages, it is an oil country that is at a time where fuel production is little or almost zero considering the needs of the population, so often to supply a little the government buys gasoline from Iran from the people, so the price can vary.

In the gas stations of the national company, the cost of gasoline has a ridiculous price of only 5,000 Bolívares per liter, that is why there are large queues of cars waiting to buy gasoline, the queues are so long that they can last more than a day trying to fill a tank of a car, on the other hand, imported gasoline has a price of 0.5 $ per liter at the pump where they are Premium gasoline with international price, but most Venezuelans do not have time to go to a queue at a gas station for more than a day to fill their tank, that is why there are people who do not have a job or rather, their salary is not enough and they do not receive any kind of help, who go to queues for hours and then resell this gasoline at a price At $ 1 per liter, these people are called Bachaquero in my country, so if a person has a car and needs gasoline, it is easier to buy gasoline from Bachaquero than to go to queue.

In my country the importation of cars has been a big problem in recent years, in fact many people took advantage when the government brought some cars to be assembled in a company in the country, but it turns out that most of these people were people who had deals With the government, high-ranking employees or the military, for ordinary people these cars were unattainable, that is why many people who currently have cars bought in the years when the crisis was not so strong, that right now they sell their cars at very high prices , because obviously bringing a new one for a common person would be impossible, for example a car in good condition but from the year 95 if it is a Toyota brand, for example a Corolla could be worth between 1800 and 2000 dollars, while one from a more brand inexpensive such as a tray between 1500 to 2000 dollars a used car in good condition from 2008 for example. The urban public transport that is to say within the same city is worth 100,000 Bolívares, but for example from my city to the closest city it costs $ 2 that is to say 4,322,500 Bolívares.

Today by chance my mom bought some grocery items (thanks Hive) and it is worth saying that everything is very expensive and we are practically vegetarians, but just to mention some items and their price, my mother bought:

These only five products have a value of 12,500,000 Bolívares, that is, $ 5.78

Currently the minimum salary in my country is 2,400,000 biweekly, that is, only a little more than $ 1 every fifteen days, if we compare this amount with the expenses mentioned above, that amount is not even enough for the monthly rent of a telephone mobile, then how does the person work online or how does he send his children's homework to the teachers if he cannot get his phone, if his phone is damaged, how does he repair it. In other words, the minimum wage in my country is not enough for anything and that is why misfortunes, suicides, diseases that were believed eradicated and much more abound. You will then wonder what Venezuelans live on.

The vast majority of Venezuelans are living thanks to the money remittances sent by their relatives who emigrated from the country, also the trade of other non-essential products fell but food sales became more important, that's why the people who dedicate themselves To invest money in a business they do it in food, also people began to use the dollar as a financial exchange currency which allows them to protect themselves against devaluation in their own way, that is, when a person sells something they do it in dollars because if It does it in bolivars and the currency devalues in a single day, it can lose a significant percentage, so one way that Venezuelans have found to survive is to use other currencies other than ours.

On the other hand, many families use online jobs paid in foreign currency as their main source of income, either by creating content such as Hive, doing microtasks or working as Freelancers, Venezuelans are looking for a way to find an income in another currency that allows them to survive. That is to say that logically people who can pay for mobile service, their children's school, food, gasoline or, failing that, transportation must have at least one or more external source of income, then a teacher or professor could survive just teaching, in my opinion, the latter is impossible, that's why the current situation hurts a lot and I hope that with my publication people are a little more aware of this reality and have given a contribution to this dynamic so important to share our experiences.