(30 Sep 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Caracas, Venezuela – 30 September 2024
1. Children walking by the hands of their mother towards subway to go to school
2. Children walking towards school as sun rises above Caracas skyline in the background
3. Children arriving to school
4. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Penélope Perez, teacher:
"We all have to carry on and return to school means that to me, to carry on."
5. Penélope Perez getting inside bus to go to school
6. Children at classroom
7. Classroom decorated with back to classes messages
8. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Fernando Pereira, Founder of Community Learning Center:
++ PARTIALLY OVERLAID WITH SHOTS 6-9
"It is not easy for parents at this time, but we always have to offer alternatives for our children. We cannot show them the idea that we are in a cave with no way out, with no light, we rather aim to (the idea of) a tunnel, a tunnel that we can go through."
9. Children praying
STORYLINE:
Venezuela’s children go back to school, amid uncertainty left by political unrest after presidential elections.
On Monday, most of Venezuela’s schools reopened classrooms after summer vacations.
Two months ago President Nicolás Maduro was proclaimed winner of elections, sparking widespread protests as the opposition claimed fraud, saying their candidate won by a landslide.
The turmoil was followed by heavy repression leading to the arrest of thousands of people, including children that couldn’t start classes at school this Monday.
For Penélope Perez, a teacher who works at a private school in an impoverished area in western Caracas, the return to classes means a way to keep moving forward.
"We all have to move forward. For me the beginning of school is that: to keep moving forward," she said.
According to Cecodap NGO, dedicated to promote and protect the rights of children, only about 15 percent of children go to private schools.
The wide majority of children depend only of public school education that has been severely hit by years of crisis and mismanagement.
In most of public schools children only go to school two days a week. Parents say their children are getting low quality education there.
But with one of the lowest salaries in the region, many parents have no other choice but to keep their kids at public school as they’re not able to pay for a private schooling.
Hernán Betancourt, a father of two who earns minimum wage, toured downtown Caracas this Monday looking to buy school supplies. His two children couldn’t go to school like the rest, he said, because it was only until today he received his bimonthly payment and could afford some of their supplies.
Venezuela’s minimum wage remains at 130 Venezuelan Bolivares per month, that is less than $5 USD per month.
Even with a monthly food assistance of about $40 for workers and the $90 government benefits known as the Fatherland Card for those who are signed up for it, Venezuelan parents feel the pinch when purchasing school supplies.
"It is not easy for parents at this time," says Fernando Pereira, a teacher and founding member of Cecodap NGO.
"But we always have to offer alternatives for our children."
AP Video shot by Juan Arraez
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