The vocation, the thread that sustains the work of teachers in Venezuela

The teacher María Eugenia Ceballos woke up before dawn to leave her house on time for her first day of school in the new school year in a public center, where his salary does not exceed six dollars, which he complements with more hours of teaching in a private school, where he receives US$120 more per month.

This week, the teacher resumed the routine in which, after five hours of class at one of the schools, she walks about two kilometers to the other school, where she works during the afternoon, something that does more for “vocation” than for the salary.

On the first day, he already spent a dollar of his budget on transportation, with which he has to make complex adjustments to also pay for his daughter’s food and university education.

Exhausted by the day, she stated that the only motivation to continue being a teacher is to listen to the children when they tell her that they are “beautiful” or that they learned something new.

Despite the recent statements of the Minister of Education, Yelitze Santaella, who indicated that a response to the teacher salary problem will be given when they arise “the economic conditions”, María Eugenia, incredulous, clings to the only thread she has left to continue: her vocation.

Protest and continue

The teacher has participated in some of the 3,185 teacher protests that were registered in Venezuela during the 2022-2023 school period, according to the Venezuelan Federation of Teachers (FVM), while she continues to teach, as she believes that leaving the classrooms, as numerous colleagues did , affects children.

“I keep going, I like my job, teaching, educating, being with children. I have not stopped working there because it is truly an institution that has given me the desire to continue working even though we are not well paid, we have nothing.”he declared.

According to official figures, this week, some 8.82 million children and adolescents progressively began the school year, the third that begins amid protests by teachers, who demand increased salaries and respect for collective contracting. .

The general coordinator of the NGO Community Learning Centers (Cecodap), Carlos Trapani, said that, in recent years, the “mosaic schedules” which consist of, “In some educational centers, children have classes only two days a week and not the other three, so that the teacher can leave teaching and do other activities to supplement their income.”

Likewise, the president of the Training of Union Leaders (Fordisi), Griselda Sánchez, explained that this year the teachers maintain the measure of “join according to your possibilities”Because – he assured – many do not have the resources to travel or eat to go to work every day.

Ideas to help

Among the complaints from the sector, María Eugenia listed, in addition to low salaries, the lack of health insurance or transportation vouchers and the structural conditions of schools, which make their work difficult.

Added to this, he continued, is the migration of professionals, not only to other countries, but to other professions, driven by the need to increase their income, which “overload” to those who continue teaching.

Given the situation, several ideas have emerged, such as that of the sector coordinator. National Council of Commerce and Services (Consecomerio), Fausto Romeo, who proposes bonds backed by the business sector and a sponsorship program for educational centers to recover infrastructure.

Romeo considers that the educational crisis is “structural” and it is not limited to the public sector, which is why, he assured, the intervention of all sectors is required to overcome it and prevent it from getting worse, since it has even “endangered” the preparation of new generations of teachers.

“The schools of Education are lacking students for that specific career and we have to understand that if we do not recover that, tomorrow our grandchildren will not even have a teacher, a teacher to be able to carry this out,” he warned.