Why don’t Venezuela’s retired teachers want to return to the classrooms as the government requests?

Alejandra, 60, retired from Venezuela’s public education system more than 12 years ago. But a decree from the government of President Nicolás Maduro, to alleviate the shortage of teachers in the country, is now inviting her to return to teaching. She, like many other teachers, refuses.

“How are we going to go to work? So that they pay us five dollars a month? (…) It even seems like an insult to me; I can love my profession, I love it, and where I live there is a need for teachers in all areas, but how are we going to work like this?”

Alejandra is not her real name, she asked to change it to protect her identity for fear of reprisals, she believes that she may be branded a “terrorist” for expressing opinions contrary to the government.

With his back to the camera, he talks to the Voice of America from his modest house in a mountainous and poor area on the outskirts of Caracas, days before the government’s resolution.

Public education in Venezuela has been in emergency for yearsdue to low salaries and working conditions, which forced thousands of professionals to desert.

Millions of children and adolescents in public institutions today receive half-time classes or reduced hours.

On October 8, the Minister of Education, Héctor Rodríguez, signed a resolution to allow retired teachers to return to schools if they wished.

Rodríguez recognized “some difficulties” in teaching in areas such as mathematics, chemistry and physics, and maintained that it is necessary to “ensure” that young people “have all their teachers, their entire schedule.”

“A bad joke”

According to the Center for Documentation and Social Analysis of the Venezuelan Federation of Teachers (Cendas-FVM), the average salary of a teacher per month is about 21 dollars at the official exchange rate.

“It seems like a bad joke,” insists Alejandra about the government’s proposal.

She was not spared from the complex economic crisis, which pulverized the salaries and pensions of professionals, amid the high cost of living.

“At the beginning of my retirement (2011) I could still support myself a little with the salary I had earned from retirement, but as time went by everything became more complicated economically in the country, I had to choose to start working again.”

Then, he began giving private classes at home to children and adolescents. But going back to public school? No.

“Even if a person feels like doing it, they can’t do it, because they can’t. In other words, we have many needs, we are physically and mentally exhausted, because this situation has also affected our minds, our spirit,” he says.

“A young person is not going to get that job either, they prefer to do something else because the salary they pay is not even enough to pay for a bus to get to the classroom.”

Jobs to survive; hairdressers, pastry chefs…

The Venezuelan Federation of Teachers (FVM) estimates that About 1,000 teachers left the country between 2015 and 2024.

“Many of them left the country, others went to private schools, others are doing other jobs such as hairdressing, baking, housewives, etc.,” says the president of the FVM, Carmen Teresa Márquez.

According to Márquez, in the last three years, there have been more than 4,000 protests in the countrywithout the Maduro government having responded to the request for a salary increase.

Leyla Escobar, also from the FVM, describes what is happening in the education sector as a “calamity,” with “hunger wages.”

“There are many other teachers who did not leave the country, who are here, who are fixing hair, making cake, cutting nails (…) They went to another job that gives them more than being in a classroom,” he says. .

Connect with the Voice of America! Subscribe to our channels YouTube, WhatsApp and to the newsletter. Turn on notifications and follow us on Facebook, x and instagram.