In Acapulco, 140 elementary schools have closed as teachers face extortion and kidnappings from gangsters.
School children in parts of Mexico are getting some extra
summer vacation – for all the wrong reasons.
One week into the academic year, students at 140
elementary schools in Acapulco – the tourist resort city previously known for
sun-tanned Americans rather than gang wars – have been sent home, due to
teachers fearing extortion and kidnappings by gangs.
About 600 teachers, mostly from schools in mountainside
slums surrounding Acapulco's resorts, are refusing to come to work after
colleagues received threats demanding they turn over half of their salaries or
face attack. At least four teachers in the city have reportedly been kidnapped
in the last two weeks.
It is the latest threat against educators, as drug
fuelled lawlessness seeps into all levels of the social fabric in various
corners of the country.
In the city of Juarez on Mexico's northern border with
Texas, gunmen attacked a group of parents waiting for their children outside an
elementary school on August 25, killing one man and injuring five parents.
Extortion and murder
"There are a lot of negative influences here,"
a vice principal at an elementary school in Juarez told Al Jazeera during an
interview in January. He didn't want his name used as he was not authorised to
speak to the media. "Kids all over town are used to seeing violence. They record
pictures of dead bodies on their cellphones and put them on Facebook."
Like their counterparts in Acapulco, teachers in Juarez –
one of the world's most violent cities - have also faced extortion demands.
Beginning in November 2010 gangsters "wrote graffiti
on the school's walls saying: 'If you don't pay up a massacre will
happen," the vice principal said.
After graffiti was sprayed on the walls, someone left a
note under the vice principal's car, demanding 1,000 pesos - $84 - from each of
the school's 30 teachers within 24 hours. The note was not signed by any
particular cartel, and it instructed school officials to leave the money at a
public swimming pool. They never paid and the massacre did not take place. But
the graffiti, openly threatening teachers, terrified the youngsters.
"To see the sorrow and the situation with the
parents and students is the hardest part," said a teacher in Juarez, who
did not want to be identified for fear of reprisal, during an interview in
January. "I just want it to end," she told Al Jazeera.
Nearly 40,000 people have been killed in drugs violence
since December 2006, when Felipe Calderon, Mexico's president, launched a full
scale assault on cartels.
And things have gotten worse over the past 18 months.
Today, a person dies from drugs violence in Mexico every 35 minutes, according
to the Wall Street Journal.
Educational standards
Compared to other countries in Latin America, schools in
Mexico fare quite well in terms of educational standards. A survey from PISA,
an international test of 15-year-olds, says Mexico has the region's second best
educated children after Chile.
Around 45 per cent of Mexicans finish secondary school,
according to Mexicanos Primero, a non-governmental organisation. Meanwhile 75
per cent of US students graduate high school on time with a regular diploma,
according to the US department of education.
Mexico – the world's fourteenth largest economy - spends
about five per cent of gross domestic product on education, which is on par
with other industrialising countries. But critics say much of this money is
wasted due to corruption and mismanagement. Teachers and principals say the
biggest threats to education come from violence and social decay.
"Being a teacher in Juarez is really hard. You must
be a psychologist, a mediator, and a mentor," the vice principal said.
"And we do not have the resources of other countries."
The spirit of criminality gripping Juarez and Acapulco,
where might makes right and retribution creates a vicious cycle of
exponentially more gory violence, can be seen in classrooms.
"One six year old was being reprimanded by a
teacher," the vice principal said. "The child said 'if you punish me,
I’ll hit eight kids."
"We are all products of our society and we reflect
our environment," he said. And that is a problem if you are a student in
Juarez or Acapulco.
Source: Al Jazeera