Caribbean & Central America - February 2014 (ISSN 1741-4458)
GUATEMALA: Pérez Molina under fresh pressure over education
Last month saw a revival of unrest from Guatemala’s teachers in demand of a 10% salary increase and additional resources. This was not a surprise given the failure of the 158-member unicameral legislature to approve the government’s national budget last year, which would assign more funds to the sector [RC-13-12]. The subsequent approval by the legislature of an additional Q$1.5bn (US$191m) at the behest of President Otto Pérez Molina has, for the time being, averted the threat of further unrest. Yet it comes amid signs that education is suffering under the Partido Patriota government.
On 23 January thousands of teachers across the country gathered in Guatemala City, in protests organised by the Asociación Nacional del Magisterio (ANM) and the Sindicato de Trabajadores de la Educación (Steg) unions. This had been widely expected after congress failed to meet the 30 November deadline to approve 2014 draft budget for Q$70.6bn (US$8.9bn), meaning that the 2013 budget for Q$66.98bn (US$8.41bn) was rolled over. Education was due to receive an allocation of Q$12.32bn (US$1.56bn) in the 2014 budget, up from Q$10.74bn (US$1.36bn) in 2013.
The unrest had an impact. A week later congress approved the extra Q$1.5bn of funds, of which Q$1.0bn will go to education and the rest to health. With Guatemala’s spending on education among the lowest in the region (see sidebar), the protests come as a local think-tank, Educa Guatemala, released a report at the start of the month which had some worrying findings for the Pérez Molina government, suggesting a decline in educational coverage. According to the report pre-school coverage was just 44% in 2012, down from 57% in 2009. For primary education, coverage dropped to 89.1% from 98.7% over the same period, while lower secondary (ciclo básico) coverage remained stable at 43.2%.
- Spending
The latest World Bank figures put Guatemala’s public spending on education as a percentage of GDP at just 3% - the lowest of any Central American country (although figures for Honduras were not available). This compares with Costa Rica (7.2%), Nicaragua (4.6%); Panama (3.5%) and El Salvador (3.4%).