Edgar Machado, president of the Venezuelan Union of Teachers of the Capital District-FVM, recalls in an interview with SuchWhich that for the 2023-2024 school year, the then Minister of Education Yelitze Santaella announced an enrollment of eight million students. Machado wonders what happened this year when just over five million were reported
The Minister of Education, Héctor Rodríguez, said that school enrollment grew and exceeds five million students. He spoke of an increase in the number of teachers in the classroom, but did not specify specific data. The official described both events as “victories”, although the figures given by himself, at least in terms of enrollment, are far from showing “growth.”
“Enrollment grew, schedules improved, the full class schedule is met, the number of teachers increased, these are victories, we must say that,” Rodríguez said on October 24. The official did not explain what he bases on claiming that there was an increase in enrollment, but he did indicate that the portfolio he directs has the goal of reaching six million students.
If Héctor Rodríguez based his assertion on last year’s data, then what school enrollment did was decrease 37.5%, compared to the 2023-2024 school year, when at the beginning of that period, the then Minister of Education Yelitze Santaella indicated that the year began with more than eight million students.
In statements to VTV, Santaella highlighted that more than 1,905,000 schoolchildren in the initial stage returned to the classrooms, in primary education more than three million infants returned to the classrooms, in general average more than 2,400,000 and in technical average nearly 300,000 students. In 2022 he gave a similar report.
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Edgar Machado, president of the Venezuelan Union of Teachers of the Capital District, recalls in an interview with SuchWhich the figures given by Santaella at the beginning of the 2023-2024 school year and wonder where the rest of the young people who did not enroll are.
Machado explained that the federation has visited several educational institutions and they have been able to verify that in some institutions there are few students.
The Venezuelan Federation of Teachers and the National Association of Private Educational Institutions (Andiep) have attributed the drop in the number of boys, girls and adolescents enrolled in school to migration.
The National Survey of Living Conditions (Encovi), in its 2023 reportalso found that young people between 12 and 17 years old abandoned their studies because they do not find what they learn useful, they consider that the education provided is of poor quality or they must work.
Teachers in the classrooms
The Minister of Education, Héctor Rodríguez, also said that the educational system registers an increase in the number of active teachers, as well as compliance with the full class schedule. He asked to guarantee 100% schooling and organize the necessary teaching teams and ensure that all teachers “benefit from the social care plan.”
In September, Rodríguez indicated that for this year half a million active teachers are registered plus an unspecified number of retired teachers who will help in training programs. Maduro called on all teachers who do not work so that they “reintegrate” to the classrooms of classes, to high schools, to strengthen the Venezuelan educational system.
Regarding this, union leader Edgar Machado assures that the Venezuelan Federation of Teachers has been able to corroborate that there is a shortage of teachers in some of the 54 institutions that they have visited in Caracas.
He recalls that at the beginning of the school year, Minister Rodríguez and President Nicolás Maduro called on retirees to join educational centers “for love.” The location, in his opinion, is due to the fact that the authorities realized the great shortage of teachers in the schools.
The president of the Venezuelan Union of Teachers of the Capital District recognizes that the educators who were on secondment have approached the educational centers, but not the retirees. “With these starvation wages, they (retirees) prefer to do another economic activity that allows them more income than being in an educational unit,” he comments.
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