Venezuela calls on retired teachers to return to school amid staff shortages

Venezuela’s Education Minister Héctor Rodríguez has signed a resolution inviting retired teachers and professors to return to the classroom, just over a week before the start of the school year. This initiative aims to address a significant number of vacancies, particularly in the public sector, caused by the collapse of the salary structure and the mass emigration of educators.

Rodríguez also announced that teachers currently on “service commissions” — working in administrative roles rather than teaching — must return to their teaching positions. In making this announcement, he acknowledged the challenges in filling subjects such as mathematics, physics, and chemistry within national public education and emphasized the urgent need to ensure that students have full-time teachers in place.

“The primary task we face is to ensure quality, inclusive education for all. However, the biggest challenge in achieving this goal lies within our own bureaucracy and the functioning of the Ministry,” said Rodríguez.

The hyperinflationary crisis and severe economic contraction experienced by the country from 2014 to 2020 triggered a mass exodus of teachers at the end of the previous decade, leading to a significant deterioration of the Venezuelan educational system — once a cornerstone of Chavista propaganda regarding social investment and the achievements of its administration. The Venezuelan Federation of Teachers, an educational union, estimates that approximately 100,000 teachers left the profession between 2015 and 2020.

The Maduro government has spent several years denying this reality, asserting that “not a single school has closed in Venezuela” despite the ongoing crisis. Currently, the government blames the situation on international sanctions, claiming these measures restrict their ability to manage budgets effectively. A public school teacher in Venezuela now earns approximately $25 a month, a stark decline from over $400 in 2010, when they were already underpaid. While teachers receive some additional bonuses deposited into their digital wallets — amounting to around $150 — they often seek supplemental income by offering private lessons.

Many teachers have turned to alternative trades, becoming motorcycle taxi drivers or accepting loans from public banks — after nearly seven years of limited access to financing — to start micro-enterprises. While the public education sector serves the majority of Venezuela’s lower-income populations, private education caters primarily to the middle and upper classes, representing about 30% of the population. Although private institutions face challenges in retaining teachers who wish to emigrate and have also scaled back their services, they generally offer significantly better working conditions.

As the school year begins, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro announced a plan aimed at providing socio-economic aid and improvements for impoverished Venezuelan teachers, who are among the poorest in South America. This initiative includes a digital credit-based purchasing program for acquiring goods, a new healthcare plan, coverage for urban transportation, and a monthly subsidy that includes food bags. Additionally, the country’s network of public schools, which have deteriorated significantly in recent years, will undergo a comprehensive maintenance plan, for which Maduro has requested logistical assistance from the Armed Forces.

The Venezuelan teachers’ union, one of the largest in the country, has long expressed frustration over the executive’s salary arrears and has become a focal point of social unrest, evidenced by street protests over the past two years. Many of these demonstrations have faced harsh repression from the government, with organizers facing prosecution. Since the era of Hugo Chávez, the Bolivarian Revolution has invested heavily in health and education, yielding some encouraging results in its early years. However, these efforts eventually gave way to catastrophic administrative mismanagement and significant failures.

Chavista educational projects initially enjoyed success, particularly with the establishment of Bolivarian Schools and initiatives aimed at combating poverty, such as the School Feeding Program. Notable progress was made in preschool education, and alternative pathways to higher education were expanded through the Sucre Mission.

However, these achievements began to unravel amidst the national socioeconomic collapse that took hold during the currency crisis of 2013, which led to the disappearance of goods and skyrocketing prices. Structural corruption undermined nearly all social programs, and the rapid devaluation of the currency severely eroded teachers’ salaries and the funding available for maintenance.

Following significant advancements in education from the 1940s to the 1980s — during which illiteracy was nearly eradicated and access to primary education became widespread — Venezuela’s educational system, particularly in the public sector, has entered a decline from which it has yet to recover.

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