Honduras Teachers' Strike

I’m going to try to be careful about how I express myself on this topic, given that Peace Corps volunteers aren’t really supposed to publish opinions on political matters in their host country. Remember that these are my words, not the American government’s… But I am left frustrated by the continuing political clash between the Honduran government and the national teachers’ syndicate. Their 5 ½ week strike has just ended, but there are threats of an immediate repeat.

The teachers claim that corrupt government officials robbed the better part of their pensions fund amidst the confusion and chaos of 2009’s political crisis and that no one has yet been held accountable. [But then again, the teachers went on strike for that last year too.] The union also claims that the government is secretly scheming to privatize the entire education system of Honduras, which would, they claim, end the education of hundreds of thousands of children whose parents couldn’t afford to pay tuition. Privatization would also, not to mention, undoubtedly affect their salaries. So, for these reasons, and possibly more, the teachers’ union went on strike for more than a month, essentially shutting down blocks and blocks of Tegucigalpa in sometimes violent protests, and in effect making a mess of my plans to work in the schools this year.

It doesn’t help the delicate situation that the vast majority unionized teachers belong to “La Resistencia” (The Resistance), the political party of Mel Zelaya, the deposed president who was replaced by current president Pepe Lobo. It also doesn’t help that lame-duck presidents in past have conceded perhaps more than the government could really afford to the constantly fighting union: There is a strict one-term term limit on the presidency and increasing spending on education looks good to international aid organizations like the IMF and World Bank (that often tack on policy stipulations to their loan offers), not to mention is good for the public image of their party.

I agree that unions are helpful to put a check on capitalism that naturally pushes down wages and quality of working conditions as enterprises seek to expand profits. Indeed certain universal workers’ rights should be respected. But a balance should exist. In a country where the government struggles to collect even the slimmest portion of taxes owed to it by its citizens and that has been running on a decade-long deficit supported only by international aid organizations, the teachers have it pretty well. Too well?

You’d think it would make sense to invest in new schools, new classrooms, general repairs, new desks and chairs, chalkboards, useful books, training for teachers etc etc. But teachers’ salaries eat up a very high percentage of the entire education budget (some pundits claim more than 90%!). Plus, they don’t have to pay income taxes, hold lifelong jobs, get bonus pay if they work in rural communities (still the majority in Honduras), only have to have a high school diploma to be able to teach, and only teach half-days (a good part of which, kids are playing futbolito at recess). The principal of my school has one of the nicest houses in town with two stories and a garden. All this and teachers still found it necessary to be on strike for a month.

And what an ugly month it was in terms of resolving disagreements: riots and tear-gas in the streets of Tegucigalpa, one teacher died, several were jailed, both sides almost comically called the others’ bad names, and all the while, kids across the country simply lost all those days of potential learning. And trust me: at least the kids in my town need to study a whole lot more to be on par with children in the rest of the world in even the most basic of things like elementary reading and writing and mathematics, not to mention more complex things like science or history or just general critical thinking skills. Working in the fields or in the home instead of going to school is a problem when classes are actually being held-- and when they're not, there's no choice.

People in my town easily agreed with the teachers that the national government has been openly corrupt in the past and that little or nothing has been done to stop it. Politicians, after all, can afford to put their kids in private schools that aren’t affected by the strikes. And they would probably have been willing to fight alongside teachers for fairer rights or more education spending. But, parents were generally disgruntled at the teachers because, needless to say, they wanted to see their children going to classes. They called for other ways to fight for their rights, alternatives that wouldn’t harm kids’ education.

Then, all of a sudden, teachers started giving classes again. It seems to me that nothing actually happened to end the strike. It all feels immature and out-of-the-blue to me and certainly with no easy solution. Things seem to have gotten way out of hand over something that, in my opinion, is trivial in the grand scheme of things and simply misses the point. Both sides are to be to blame and the whole system has gotten all messed up. For me, I’m most definitely left on the sideline of this thing, with fingers crossed that people will just cool it for a while and get on with classes.

More blog posts will happen soon, I promise. In the meantime, have a happy Holy Week!