As the academic year begins across much of Latin America, teacher unions continue their campaigns to overcome challenges to quality education. In Argentina, Colombia and Brazil, unions tackle a range of issues from educational funding to teacher rights.
Rolling strikes are taking place across sixteen provinces of Argentina as teachers highlight inadequate education standards and untenably low teacher salaries. Public school teacher, Cecilia Martinez was quoted at demonstrations in Buenos Aires on March 17, “Budgets have been cut, infrastructure inside schools has not been maintained. The salaries are so low that there aren’t enough teachers. Public schools are closing. Education is really a basic right.”
The lack of investment in education, that has fuelled the current crisis, is clearly illustrated in photos obtained by CTERA showing stark classrooms in the Province of Corrientes in the North-East of the country. In Félix María Gómez School in the city of Corrientes, students sit on the floor in empty classrooms.
Meanwhile the Colombian union, Federación Colombiana de Educadores (FECODE) is struggling to halt the erosion of public quality education. FECODE has published an in-depth analysis of the situation of education in Colombia, and contends that government reforms favouring privatisation “see education as a commodity and not as a basic right”. While primary education is ostensibly free in Colombia, in reality very few children qualify, and children whose families are unable to afford the creeping costs associated with attending school continue to be left out.For those in education, the trend towards concession of schools to private entities draws both students and their teachers into a results-dominated system. With teachers judged solely on the performance of their students, ‘the-teaching-to-the-test’ approach becomes inevitable.
Outside the classroom teachers face graver challenges, according to government figures, over half the unionists murdered in Colombia have been teachers. During February alone two teachers were killed and another severely injured in targeted attacks. FECODE continues to work for improved protection of teachers.
In Brazil the Confederação Nacional dos Trabalhadores em Educação (CNTE) is opposing temporary teaching contracts as a threat to quality education. A recent survey on Brazilian education shows one fifth of Brazilians believe poor pay and motivation for teachers is the main obstacle to quality education in Brazil. Forty-one percent of Brazilians believe their education system to be good.
Responding, President of CNTE, Roberto Franklin Leão said “Education is gradually improving, but it needs to improve much more, and also more quickly. There is a need for greater investment”.