Venezuela: University professors earn $5 per month, how does low wages affect teaching?

Crisis in Venezuela it also affects university professors and endangers higher educationfixed Association for Latin American Studies (LASA).

In this country, a teacher receives 130 bolivars a month, which is equivalent to an average of $5 (or less than S/20 if converted to Peruvian currency).

According to LASA, a teacher earns $25 less than in March 2022, the date of the last pay increase. This means a loss of purchasing power caused by the accelerated devaluation of the local currency as a result of inflation.

“The lack of adequate remuneration affects academic freedom, the right college student educationendangering the scientific and social development of the country,” the LASA said in a statement.

The institution also indicated that it is necessary to ensure the labor rights of teachers “so that they can have decent wages and living conditions,” and thereby “guarantee the right to freedom of speech and academic freedom.”

The document recalls that, in line with the principles adopted by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in 2021, “the allocation of resources can neither become a tool for attacking institutions and academic groups, nor a threat to critical thinking.”

“The state budget must maintain the necessary proportionality so that all higher education institutions can carry out their activities with equal autonomy. Transparency is an important requirement for states in managing their budget,” the letter says.

In this sense, LASA called on the government to ensure “the full right to academic freedom, fair remuneration and social benefits, so that the academy devotes itself to its most important tasks: research, dissemination and exchange of knowledge.”

Teachers and professors, as well as other government officials, regularly demonstrate to demand salaries that can at least cover their basic needs. (AFP).