In General Pico, a medium-sized city in central Argentina, police officers in cars, on motorcycles and on foot surrounded a business days ago to which they were called for an attempted robbery.
Inside was the accused: a 13-year-old teenager who had wanted to steal a box of markers and a couple of pencils.
When she was taken to the police station and her mother came to look for her, her youngest told her that she had wanted to help her because she knew that she did not have enough money to buy school supplies for her three daughters.
While part of Argentine society called her a thief, another part pointed out the desperation of a family due to the high costs of going back to school in a country immersed in a serious economic crisis, with more than half of the population plunged into poverty. poverty, according to estimates by the Argentine Catholic University.
The Ombudsman's Office of the province of Buenos Aires points out in a report that the prices of school supplies increased by 502% in the last year, almost double inflation, which is 254.2% year-on-year.
According to these data, a family with two school-age children needs 233,000 pesos (about 200 dollars) to buy a backpack, materials and school clothing if they opt for the cheapest items.
It is a figure higher than the minimum wage, set for February at 180,000 pesos ($160).
Teacher strike
Classes should start this Monday in Buenos Aires and seven other provinces, but it is not clear how many schools will operate normally.
One of Argentina's large teaching unions, CTERA, has called for a strike.
The others left it on hold until they knew the result of the salary negotiation for 2024 with the Government.
If the dialogue fails, the teacher will stop.
The Argentine president, Javier Milei, seeks to prevent new measures of force with the declaration of education as an essential service, but the unions warn that, if he curtails the right to protest, they will harden the fight against the national authorities, as they have done and to railway and health workers.
Milei also has the provincial governors against him, who demand the urgent sending of the suspended transfers, including the National Teacher Incentive Fund (Fonid), intended to improve teacher salaries in public and charter schools.
In January, some provinces assumed the amount owed with their own resources, but others warned that they cannot do so and salaries suffered a 10% cut (to which is added the loss of purchasing power of 20.6% due to the inflation registered in January).
“It is up to the Nation to support, to lead in some senses, some educational transformations.
There is a fund for infrastructure that is stopped.
For increased working hours, unemployed.
The Fonid, stopped.
A large number of programs are all trampled on, stopped,” denounces the Secretary of Culture and Education of the province of Buenos Aires, Alberto Sileoni.
The Government replies that “there is no money” and each district in the country must make do with the funds it has.
The only government relief measure granted so far for families with school-age children is a bonus of 70,000 pesos ($64).
More than seven million children are entitled to receive it, but it requires presenting a school certificate that some parents have not yet obtained.
“They told me that for the certificate they have to start classes and I don't know if they will start if they don't pay the teachers,” says Nélida C., mother of three children and part-time clerk at a bakery in Bajo Flores, a neighborhood poor from the south of Buenos Aires.
“We are going to recycle everything: school supplies, backpack and duster [white coat, mandatory in public primary schools in Argentina].
The youngest was wearing her sister's sneakers and they broke so she borrowed money to buy others for her,” she adds.
In many middle-class families, purchasing materials is less of a problem than paying for private schools.
According to a report by the consulting firm Focus Market, prices have tripled in one year and have multiplied by seven compared to 2022. On average, the monthly fees of schools will be 145,000 pesos (about $130) in March and are expected monthly or bimonthly increases tied to inflation.
In bilingual schools, fees are between two and four times higher than the average.
In December, Guillermo R. decided to transfer his youngest son from the private school where his brother attended to a cheaper one because he knew that he would not be able to afford the expense in 2024. Last year he already combined his work as a designer in a health services company with some
freelance
work , but it was not enough for them either: they cut their annual beach vacation from 15 days to just one week and eating out had been reserved only for special days.
Guillermo still doesn't know how his son will adapt to the new school but he trusts that it will help him that one of his best friends switched with him.
“We no longer had anywhere else to cut, luckily we made the right decision,” he says, seeing that prices have skyrocketed in the last two months.
His case is not the norm because for most families changing schools is the last option.
First, there is stopping paying fees, or paying them partially: late payment today affects one in five private schools.
The crisis is felt most in new registrations, in free fall.
The most uncertain return to school in recent years has become a nightmare for many families.
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