The El Salvador Teachers' Unit, which brings together various teachers' unions, on Friday called for a protest on January 26, 2024, over the lack of review and increase in salaries for public sector teachers.

Daniel Rodriguez, Secretary General of the Teachers Union, said: “We teachers are completely disturbed, because our right to a salary increase, which is stipulated in our law regarding the teaching profession, which is a special law, has been violated.” He told reporters and public education teachers in El Salvador (semidoco).

He pointed out that the protest will begin in the historic center of San Salvador and will go to the headquarters of the Ministry of Education in the government center “to demand setting a maximum period of three years to conduct reviews on the salaries of teachers in the national public network.”

Francisco Zelada, also from Semedoco, noted that in previous administrations they had achieved increases in teachers' salaries ranging between 10% and 20%.

And also: “The main flaw in the system is the evaluation.”

He added that he hoped there would be a call in the coming days from Education Secretary Jose Pineda, “because if not, the teachers will organize to take to the streets” on the scheduled date.

On the other hand, Rodriguez indicated that they had evidence of “manipulation in the appointment of temporary teachers” in which established legal procedures were not followed.

“The majority of those appointed are political activists from the ruling party,” he added, noting that they will also receive permanent places in the national education system.

He also pointed out that school budgets for 2023, in his opinion, are insufficient and came in “a few drops.”

The newspaper “El Diario de Hoy” spoke with at least five people responsible for the management of educational centers in the last four months of 2023, in regions such as Ahuachapan, Santa Ana, Morazan, Sonsonate and San Salvador, and in all cases there were complaints that budget funds were not delivered. The entire school is run by the central government, which means that educational bodies or parent communities themselves had to carry out additional activities to obtain funds and cover basic needs in schools.

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