60% of Caracas teachers do not know if they will return to school | via: Radio Fe y Alegria
Oscar Acuña Arteaga | Venezuela | June 29, 2023
Unofficial translation made by HumVenezuela…
Edgar Enrique Machado, president of the Venezuelan Teachers Union of the Capital District, said that 60% of the teachers in the Capital District are thinking whether or not to return next school year.
The most serious aspect of this situation, according to him, is that it is the children and young students of Venezuela who will end up affected.
Machado assured, in an interview with the program En Este País of Radio Fe y Alegría Noticias, that neither the Ministry of Education nor the national government is concerned about the situation of educators or the Venezuelan educational system.
He added that the different federations have tried to sit down with Minister Yelitze Santaella and the answer has always been “that there is no money”, as far as salary issues are concerned, which would be one of the main reasons why teachers are hesitating to return next year.
In this sense, the unionist affirmed that the beginning of the school year is in the hands of the Ministry of Education.
Machado also recalled that the Executive owes 280 % of the cut made through the instructions of the National Budget Office (Onapre) from the previous contract.
Empty classrooms
In states such as Barinas, Portuguesa and in some schools in Caracas, classes have not started since January 9, as a consequence of the protests, according to the president of the Venezuelan Teachers Union of the Capital District.
He added that in many educational institutions, teachers barely go two or three times a week, because their salary is not enough and they must carry out other activities, not necessarily related to education, to earn extra money.
New protest
Machado informed that next July 4, a protest is scheduled to take place in front of the Attorney General’s Office, to demand that the Attorney General of the Republic, Tarek William Saab, respond to the documents submitted by the unions that group public employees.