Nicaraguan educators have nothing to celebrate on Teacher’s Day, but raise their voices to demand the release of two teachers imprisoned for political reasons, five more subjected to spurious trials for demanding democracy for the country, and more than a thousand teachers in exile. to save themselves from Sandinista repression.
The leader of the Teachers’ Union Unit (USM) Professor Gabriel Putoy Cano affirmed that the commemoration of Teachers’ Day in Nicaragua is to “raise the voice” for the hundreds of teachers fired for not submitting to the Sandinista party guidelines imposed in all schools from the country.
For the trade unionist, Nicaragua is going through a real crisis in educational quality, since in the classrooms they do nothing more than indoctrinate students in favor of the government party.
«The educational quality in Nicaragua is terrible, since they (the Sandinistas) came to power in the first stage (1979-1990) they massified education, but the quality sank. Now in the second stage (2007-present) they have destroyed the educational quality, but they have also imposed a highly politicized education and a completely partisan language”, denounced the unionist professor.
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Education in Nicaragua has been constantly criticized for its low quality, even by the world’s highest educational organization, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco).
Nicaragua is reported to be below the regional average in Science, Mathematics and Reading, according to the results of the Unesco Regional Comparative and Explanatory Study (ERCE), which was released in 2021.
Military training for students
The USM issued a statement on June 29, regarding Teacher’s Day in Nicaragua, in which they state that they continue to “commemorate our brothers murdered during the rebellion of April 2018, (like) Professor Erick Jiménez López, from the municipality of Niquinohomo.
In addition, they denounce that Ortega has disappeared all non-Sandinista teacher unions and only allows the National Association of Educators of Nicaragua (ANDEN) to join.
Likewise, Putoy denounced that the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo has ordered military training for students, especially those in the last years of high school.
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“They have ordered the organization of the Popular Self-Defense Militias, where the director of the school Luis Alfonso Velázquez, for example, forces teachers and students from 16 to 18 years old to go to courses taught by the military and police. They take them to camps on weekends,” denounces the union leader in exile.
The salary of Nicaraguan teachers is the lowest in the region. Putoy affirms that the salary of a primary school teacher is approximately 8 thousand 600 córdobas and for secondary school it is 9 thousand 300. In neither case are they able to cover even 50% of the price of the basic food basket, which already costs almost 20 thousand cordobas.
