EDUCATION-LATIN AMERICA: To Ma’am With Love

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Gustavo González

SANTIAGO, Nov 8 2005 (IPS) - The story of María Angélica Lizama, a 56-year-old teacher who works at two schools in the Chilean capital, is a litany of sacrifice and illness, like those of most of her fellow teachers in Latin America who pay for the educational system’s deficiencies with their health.

“Before I was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in October 2004, I had suffered from voice strain, respiratory illnesses that I used to catch from the children, and arthrosis of the knees, from climbing up and down so many stairs and standing for such long periods, in school or on the buses to and from my home,” she told IPS.

Lizama lives in La Florida, a district in southeastern Santiago which is 1.5 hours by bus from Recoleta in north-central Santiago where both her jobs are. She teaches at the public school “República del Paraguay” and at the “Jaime Eyzaguirre” private school subsidised by the State.

The pupils at both schools come from lower and lower-middle socioeconomic backgrounds, and the number of Peruvian, Bolivian and Ecuadorean children is growing. The latter are the sons and daughters of migrant construction workers, street vendors or domestic employees.

“Working conditions for teachers in city schools and subsidised private schools are extremely poor. We usually work with 45 or more pupils per class, which forces us to shout in order to be heard and to spend nearly all day on our feet,” the school teacher described.

An analysis of medical diagnoses of complaints related to ergonomic wear-and-tear shows that 46 per cent of teachers in Chile had bouts of voice strain last year, 35 per cent had varicose veins, 32 per cent had spinal complaints and 27 per cent suffered from lumbago.

This information comes from a survey for an exploratory “Study of the Working Conditions and Health of Teachers” by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) which analysed conditions faced by primary and secondary school teachers in Argentina, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru and Uruguay, as well as in Chile.

The proportion of teachers suffering from these work-related ailments was similar in all six countries, according to the 210-page study presented by Ana Luiza Machado, director of UNESCO’s Regional Office of Education for Latin America and the Caribbean (OREALC), based in Santiago.

Although the study, based on surveys, included teachers of both sexes, the data relates primarily to women, who comprise a majority in the teaching profession. Women accounted for 89 per cent of teachers in the Argentine sample, 70 per cent in Chile, 66 per cent in Ecuador, 69 per cent in Mexico, 72 per cent in Peru and 96 per cent in Uruguay.

Magaly Robalino, a regional education specialist at OREALC, pointed out in the introduction to the study released on Oct. 28 that one of the strategies adopted by regional education ministers in 2002 was to strengthen the leadership role of teachers so that they respond to students’ learning needs.

Concern for the teaching profession in Latin America and the Caribbean is in line with the resolutions adopted at the 1990 World Conference on Education for All in Thailand, and at the World Education Forum in Dakar in 2000. The goals set by the global meetings are aimed at ensuring quality education for all.

But this aspiration falls apart in the face of the poor working conditions and mental health problems suffered by so many teachers. The study found that 48 per cent of the primary school teachers in Ecuador suffered from stress, along with 42 per cent in Chile, 37 per cent in Peru, 34 per cent in Argentina and Uruguay, and 27 per cent in Mexico.

In addition, 26 per cent of the teachers in Chile had been diagnosed with depression, as well as 23 per cent of the teachers in Ecuador, and 19 per cent in Peru.

Gastritis, irritable bowel syndrome, gynaecological problems, cystitis, high blood pressure and common colds are other ailments with a high incidence among teachers.

In Uruguay, 65 per cent of the teachers suffered from back pain, compared to 59 per cent in Argentina, 61 per cent in Chile, and 57 per cent in Peru. Forty-seven per cent of the teachers in Argentina and 45 per cent in Chile suffered from anxiety, while 49 per cent of the Chilean teachers and 33 per cent of the Ecuadorean teachers reported insomnia.

Forty-four per cent of the teachers in Argentina and Uruguay admitted to having difficulty concentrating, and 16 per cent of the Chilean teachers took sleeping pills.

Many of these physical and mental health problems are related to questions of infrastructure. In Peru, 96 per cent of the teachers said that classroom furniture and equipment was inadequate – an opinion shared by 92 per cent of the teachers in Ecuador, 89 per cent in Chile, 84 per cent in Uruguay, 80 per cent in Argentina and 71 per cent in Mexico.

Ximena González, who teaches at the Catholic school of Inmaculada Concepción in Cauquenes, a city of 55,000 located 400 km south of Santiago, told IPS that illnesses such as arthritis, rheumatism and voice strain are on the rise among teachers.

“We work in a very noisy environment and children aren’t taught to speak in a normal tone of voice, so one has to strain one’s voice even when suffering from a sore throat. It’s a vicious circle,” she said.

And according to the 41-year-old teacher, violence is reaching “appalling” levels in schools. This is consistent with the findings of the UNESCO study, which reported increasing concern among teachers in the six countries studied about attacks and threats by students in their workplaces.

In Argentina, 84 per cent of the teachers considered violence a serious problem in schools, 37 per cent said they had received threats of physical violence, and 33 per cent said there was “organised violence” among students. In Chile and Ecuador there were also high levels of concern. Uruguay, on the other hand, was the exception.

Lizama and González spoke out about parents’ responsibility in this regard. Parents take a hands-off approach towards their children’s education, and then back them up in conflicts with the teacher over discipline or academic performance, they complained. “The worst thing is when parents justify their child’s behaviour to teachers in an aggressive manner, thus becoming the worst possible role model,” Lizama said.

Psychologist and educator Ricardo Cuenca, coordinator of the Education Programme sponsored by German Technical Cooperation (GTZ) in Peru, was responsible for the study in his country. He told IPS that there is “gradually declining interest on the part of the State in the working conditions and health of teachers.”

The question, moreover, “is barely included on the agendas of the State, trade unions, and even in academic circles,” added the expert, who underlined that only two studies had been carried out on the subject in Peru prior to the UNESCO-OREALC surveys.

Programmes aimed at “downsizing the State” have meant that some school infrastructure and health services have been cut. “The results can be seen in the inadequate conditions in which teachers have to work in Ecuador,” Eduardo Fabara, a researcher who holds a doctorate in education, told IPS.

“Current changes in society, such as the paradox of having to prepare students for a globalised world but still give them essentially local roots, forces educational systems to change not only their organisation and structure, but also their aims,” Cuenca added.

The Peruvian expert stated that all government sectors and as many different actors as possible must take part in this effort, in line with a prominent trend in his country and throughout Latin America towards “creating the freedom and mechanisms for participation and education for civil society as a whole,” from a multisectorial and participative viewpoint.

Fabara, director of the National Centre for Social and Educational Research in Ecuador, which was in charge of the study in his country, said that “we need a multifaceted approach to improving teaching conditions, including better salaries, improved infrastructure, curriculum reform, etc.”

“These initiatives are not only the prerogative of the State. Local governments and civil society – associations and non-governmental organisations – must also contribute. There must be concerted action by a broad alliance in favour of public education,” he added.

For his part, Cuenca argued that the situation in the teaching profession “cannot continue to be seen only as a problem of ignorance of educational content or inadequate use of teaching methods. It is absolutely necessary to work throughout the system so that the teaching profession regains prestige and social recognition.”