Professors flee, higher education suffers in Venezuela

[Bacchus4.0]

Source: AP

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuela has already lost many of its brightest young professionals to better-paying jobs abroad, and now the South American country is also losing the professors who trained them.





College professors in this socialist country plagued by a cash crunch, shortages and spiraling inflation are abandoning their jobs in droves, unable or unwilling to survive on salaries as minuscule as $30 per month at the widely used black market exchange rate.

Before, instructors earned enough to buy homes and cars, and universities sponsored them for professional development courses abroad. But the last decade has seen only increases to the minimum wage for professors, meaning that the income gap between senior and junior educators has disappeared and all are now left with a similar paltry wage.

Hundreds of professors have given up their posts in recent years, and the pace is accelerating, according to the teachers' union. More than 700 of the 4,000 professors who once taught at the highly respected Central University of Venezuela in Caracas have quit during the last four years, some taking better-paying jobs in other fields inside the country while others have been lured to academic posts at universities abroad.


Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/professors-flee-higher-education-venezuela-040303327.html

[Turbineguy]

1. Maybe the GOP could learn something here

and get rid of some pesky educators in the US.

[GGJohn]

2. It's amazing how Chavez, and now Maduro, have so screwed up the country,

that these highly educated professors feel the need to leave the country for greener pasture's.
Now, who'll educate the new generation of students?
Maduro needs to be defeated in the next elections, provided he allows elections.

[Bacchus4.0]

4. Oh they have an chavista indoctrination system already in place.

Not that its helping them or anything.

This years elections are for parliament. They are unlikely to be held unless chavistas find a guaranteed way to cheat and win.

It will be somewhat interesting to see if Maduro would seek re-election or some other idiot chavista would be the ruling party candidate. However, I am wondering if the opposition were to win the parliamentary elections decidedly if chavistas would simply just flee (thats assuming there are elections, the opposition candidates are not disqualified, and would actually be allowed to take their elected offices)

[betterdemsonly]

8. Elections that have been deemed fair by the UN and the Jimmy Carter human rights center. n/t

[GGJohn]

9. That was then, this is now.

Maduro is so unpopular, he'll be lucky to be elected dog catcher, if he allows elections at all.

[Bacchus4.0]

11. Then why don't they schedule them this year? And the last elections cycle was NOT deemed

fair by the UN and Carter Center.


The reason elections have not been scheduled is because the ruling party will lose.

[betterdemsonly]

18. He was just reelected in 2013

Why would he have a new election just a year and half after being reelected? Who would? That wouldn't even happen in America. Furthermore if somebody demanded Obama have new elections a year and half after being reelected it would be recognized as an overthrow and a coup. The economic problems are mostly oil related. It is unlikely a right winger would do anything other than force extreme austerity measures on the poor when the most need help.

Not only did the Un recognized Maduro's election as fair. Right wing sources like the Wall Street Journal do too, they just honestly don't think non-Americans have a right to elect their own leaders. http://www.vice.com/en_uk/read/nicolas-maduro-did-not-steal-the-venezuelan-election

[GGJohn]

20. We're talking parlimentary elections, not presdential elections..

Last edited Thu Jun 11, 2015, 10:25 PM - Edit history (1)

I suspect the reason he hasn't set a date yet is because they know they'll get an ass whooping.

[melm00se]

5. no no no

it's the CIA funding this and spiriting these professors out of the country in the dead of night

[GGJohn]

6. That's right, I forgot that meme.

I'm quite sure that the Maduro apologists will be along shortly to proclaim this.

[Igel]

13. "Cadres of loyal, patriotic, and correct-thinking professors will be trained."

And because of those three adjectives will be judged to be academically heads and shoulders those they replace even before they're groomed and hired. In a politicized environment everything becomes explicitly political, even who gets PhDs and who gets important jobs. It's political nepotism.

Maduro will almost certainly allow elections. The only caveat is whether he will get enough disasters going to plausibly suspend the elections or postpone them indefinitely, as other defenders of "democracy" in other places have done. Since the suspension will be plausible, defenders of the words Maduro uses to label his ideals will be able to continue to defend the user of those words. (Many care about words and not referents.)

If Maduro loses them--and they're his to lose--then there's the question of whether he'll step aside, annul them, postpone implementation, or find some other way to overturn them or disregard them. Perhaps a carefully organized and orchestrated "grass roots" movement will be sufficient? (These days "grass-roots movement" mostly means "organized and funded by our side" and goes less to organization and funding and more to intent and ideology.)

No, I consider it slightly more likely that since the professoriate (is that a word in this language?) has proven perfidious, it will be necessary to institute some sort of process to confirm that the remaining faculty are loyal to the Bolvarian Revolution and its goals and leaders. Those found to not be sufficiently loyal will, of course, be replaced, sometimes "with prejudice". In that way an efficient, correct, fair and democratic process to replace the disloyal, decadent, reactionary cadres subverting the loyal Bolivarian youth and thwarting revolutionary, popular goals will be replaced by professors loyal to the people and their leaders. Another imperialist, retrograde roadblock to the Bright, Shining Future all right-thinking people are working for will be brought closer as Venezuela travels the One True Path.

Sorry. I lapsed into channeling Stalinist rhetoric from the '30s, '40s and '50s there for a moment. Whew.

[dembotoz]

3. Sounds like Wisconsin..and all this time I thought walker was a republican

Better add the sarcasm thingy or I will get banned

[6chars]

21. how do you add sarcasm thingy? nt

i

[GGJohn]

23. Click on the smilies tab,

then at the bottom of the smilies, you'll see ..., click on that and it'll reveal more emoticons, the being one of them.

Welcome to DU.

[6chars]

25. Testing now

Try being a little more helpful

[GGJohn]

26. LOL.

Good one.

[betterdemsonly]

7. If they were in the US they would be leaving because of adjunct professorships

and unpaid internships. Calling greedy opportunists the "Best in the Brightests" is just a backdoor insult to the non-wealthy.

You appear to be a professional Venezuela basher.

[GGJohn]

10. No, not a Venezuela basher,

a critic of Maduro and the Chavista's, who richly deserve it for what they've done to the country.

[Bacchus4.0]

12. $30/ month just doesn't cut it nt

[Helen Borg]

14. How much is one month's rent there?

If it's $1, then $30/month is not that bad. Yeh, difficult to travel outside the country though...

[Bacchus4.0]

15. $1??? One pair of jeans costs more than the monthly minimum wage.

outside the city center areas for sure.

Current black market rate is about Bs 400: $1 Government exchange rate (for certain items is Bs 6: $1) So if you have dollars it can be really cheap, if you don't its really expensive.

Minimum wage/ month is just under Bs $5000
http://www.expatistan.com/cost-of-living/caracas

Lunchtime menu in the business district

Bs 488


Combo meal in fast food restaurant (Big Mac Meal or similar)

Bs 476


1/2 Kg (1 lb.) of boneless chicken breast

Bs 216

1 liter (1 qt.) of whole fat milk

Bs 69


12 eggs, large

Bs 96

1 kg (2 lb.) of tomatoes

Bs 103


Housing


Monthly rent for 85 m2 (900 Sqft) furnished accommodation in EXPENSIVE area

Bs 41,725


40” flat screen TV

Bs 51,342


Entertainment


Basic dinner out for two in neighborhood pub

Bs 1,480

2 tickets to the movies

Bs 564


Cappuccino in expat area of the city

Bs 79


1 beer in neighbourhood pub (500ml or 1pt.)

Bs 113 that is more than USD $17 at official rate but about 25 cents black market exchange rate




1 pair of jeans (Levis 501 or similar)

Bs 5,061

[Helen Borg]

16. Sorry, I though it was just inflation...

$30/month? How is that possible?

[Bacchus4.0]

17. It is the inflation and they don't get paid in dollars.

Their minimum wage would be USD $800 a month or so if the Bolivar was actually 6:1 to the dollar. However, the market doesn't operate according to the government mandated exchange rate.

I've heard some government defenders say "well they don't get paid in dollars" which is true, they get paid in Bolivars which is much worse since your montly salary is 5000 Bs and a pair of jeans is Bs 5100

[yurbud]

27. it's only a sin if our "enemies" do it. The same people who bash Venezuela for this...

will push privatizing public education and gutting tenure and pay for faculty in their next post.

[quadrature]

19. good news for Maduro

people who leave will be
replaced by Maduro supporters

[Throd]

22. Here is his proclamation...

[tblue37]

24. Same thing is happening in Wisconsin, and the ones leaving are

the ones who bring in millions of dollars in federal grants and employ graduate student assistants, as well as paying those assistants' tuition.

Other states are able to poach high-performing faculty, because in addition to the higher education cutting budget by hundreds of millions, Wisconsin is actually destroying tenure.