In Venezuela, teachers' "mosaic schedule" "threatens children's future"

In Venezuela, most public school teachers only teach two to three times a week. The extremely low salaries, lack of infrastructure, and transportation problems, which are common in this crisis-hit country, have forced the education sector to implement, for the third consecutive year, a "mosaic schedule" allowing them to compensate for the loss of income by combining jobs, explains the media outlet Efecto Cocuyo .

“But its consequences seriously threaten the quality of education and the future of children and young people.”

Because “the drastic reduction in school days and hours limits learning time, affects the monitoring of the national curriculum and encourages superficial teaching, focused on memorization rather than in-depth understanding.” This has an impact on the education system and especially on the most disadvantaged students, who cannot afford private lessons and sometimes only have one day of classes per week at school. This widens the gap with the private sector.

The result: schools are emptying of teachers and students, some of whom are swelling the ranks of the more than 7.7 million Venezuelans who have fled the crisis attributed to the nationalization of the economy, corruption and US sanctions.

A study conducted by Andrés Bello Catholic University also showed a worrying decline in the academic level of middle and high school students in Caracas and six of the country's 23 states, according to another article in Efecto Cocuyo . More than 70% of students failed the math, oral expression, and written comprehension tests. Those in private schools had a slight advantage. "But the crisis is widespread," according to the news site.

It's hard to blame the teachers, however. "With the money she receives every two weeks, Belkis Bolívar can barely buy a carton of eggs. Nothing more. Or just the price of gas to go to school," describes the BBC Mundo , which states that 200,000 teachers have deserted in recent years.

A primary school teacher with thirty years of experience, Belkis earns less than $10 (about 8.9 euros) a month. In Venezuela, the average teacher salary is $21.57 (about 19.1 euros) per month, and a family's food basket amounts to more than $535 (475 euros) per month. She is forced to sell hot dogs in addition to giving private French lessons.

Others do manicures, are lifeguards or street vendors, adds Crónica Uno .

Faced with economic difficulties in this de facto dollarized country, many were hoping for an increase in the minimum wage on May 1. But the government of Nicolás Maduro, whose re-election in July 2024 is contested by the opposition and many countries , simply announced an increase in the economic “war” bonus granted each month, from 90 to 120 dollars (around 80 to 106 euros). This will raise the minimum income for public sector employees to 160 dollars (around 142 euros) per month, according to the Venezuelan president, who justifies these measures by the new sanctions imposed by the Donald Trump administration on the country's oil, reports the newspaper El Nacional .