The University Professor’s Day was commemorated in Venezuela a few days ago, specifically on December 5th, a date picked to distinguish the work of these members of the academy, destined for research and the training of future professionals.
By: Jesús Quintero | Correspondent lapatilla.com
However, university professors have suffered a steep decline in their quality of life in recent years with meager salaries that are not even enough to cover the basic needs of their family group, such as food, transportation, clothing, education, among others.
The days when being a university professor was synonymous with well-being and quality of life are long gone. In Venezuelan universities, and particularly in public higher education institutions, teacher salaries are the lowest in Latin America and the Caribbean.
lapatilla.com spoke with several professors with extensive academic and professional experience at the Universidad de Los Andes about the current conditions of university educators.
Professor Luis Alfonso Rodríguez highlighted that “university teachers have a triple mission: teaching, research and extension. We are all called to that. Now, what is the reality? A fake reality, because we live in a country with miserable salaries, where a teacher often does not earn even 350 bolivars per month in what is wrongly called a salary.”
According to the professor, “the assigned mission is broken by the non-compliance with the same law, but it is not the teacher who breaks it, the incredible thing is that it is the ‘boss, the State.”
“We Venezuelans have to understand that formal education is key in society, but it is not just about teaching, it is about building knowledge, it is about research, it is about being up to date, an action that´now is not funded, and the disparity between professions is increasingly evident,” he said.
He emphasized that “Venezuela needs to have professionals in all areas, that is being a university student, looking at the universe with diverse positions, but with the same goal: the social responsibility of forming and forging good citizens, with ideals of progress, with ethics and with formality.”
Crisis of freedom
Meanwhile, classrooms at the University of Los Andes in the Trujillo State campus, under the usual calm of research and teaching, hides a silent void. A palpable absence, a space that cries out for justice. In the absence of Gustavo Torres, a professor who is currently unjustly deprived of his freedom, victim of a political crisis that also envelops the Venezuelan university: the crisis of freedom, said forcefully Professor Johny Humbría, President of the Association of Professors of the University of Los Andes (Apula) in Trujillo.
The Human Rights Observatory of the University of Los Andes has followed this and other cases of detained university students. Torres’ arrest occurred on July 30th, along with those of two students from the same institution. His father reported on September 6th, that Torres was transferred from Trujillo to the Tocuyito prison, in the state of Carabobo, more than 400 kilometers away.
The poorest in Latin America
Regarding the salary situation, ULA professor Maira Duque reiterated the need to demand that the Venezuelan State pay attention to university professors and even the entire university. She considered it imperative to have a new educational agreement in which all those who make university education possible are vindicated and compensated adequately for their efforts.
In her words she said: “We understand that the country is going through difficulties and that the context that allowed us to develop what is left of the current university infrastructure no longer exists, but this cannot justify sacrificing the quality of education as a pillar for the development of the nation.”
The professor continued her reflection: “I believe that a new educational pact is possible to improve the working conditions and benefits of all university workers, especially because the country needs to overcome the crisis and be competitive, which can only be achieved with the help of a strengthened educational system oriented towards humanistic, scientific, technological and ecologically sustainable development.”
University teachers receive salary bonuses that are not in line with the work they do, much less represent the economic reality that the country is going through, which is why they must work on various additional activities to obtain the resources to cover their own and family expenses.
The University Observatory determined after a study that “the professor who receives the best salary receives 27 dollars a month. University professors in Venezuela commemorate their day by being the poorest in Latin America.”
After almost 1,000 days without a salary increase, professors who have just begun their academic career and only work half-time receive 5 dollars a month for their work.
Because of this salary crisis, 32% of university professors eat less than three times a day, and 45% have had to sell or exchange goods to buy food, according to data from the latest survey published by this observatory.
Similarly, 7 out of 10 teachers dedicate themselves to other activities, which do not necessarily have to do with educational work, to obtain income and cover their most basic needs.