Distance learning uphill (proposition): Education sector warns of difficulties

The education sector in Venezuela in recent years has been hit by the resignations of teachers due to low salaries, lack of food, insecurity, scarcity of services, all related to the crisis to which Nicolas Maduro’s regime has submerged the country. With the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic, all the problems were worsened.

The frustration and difficulties in completing the school year have made teachers and trade unions nervous, and they have warned of the serious problems faced by the country’s schools in starting a new period using distance learning mode.

Fermín Rivero, president of the Nueva Esparta section of Fetraenseñanza, said the start of the new school year will be very strong, not only for the schools but also for Venezuelan parents and children.

“I don’t want to anticipate the future but experience tells me that things are not going to be good. I hope I am wrong but the beginning of the school year is going to be difficult, it is going to be very hard and we do not know what we are going to accomplish,” he said.

Rivero stressed that the technical difficulties of teaching non-presential classes were never overcome.

Problems with Internet connection, the shortage of public services and the serious humanitarian crisis the country is going through have prevented Venezuelan schools and parents from having an efficient school year. The worsening of the crisis due to the pandemic has hit the country’s education sector hard and Maduro’s dictatorship is not responding to the complaints of the unions.