From violence on the way to school to electricity blackouts, four young women discuss trying to learn during economic and political upheaval.

Teacher shortages. Violence on the way to school. Budget cuts. Electricity and water outages in classrooms. School shutdowns. For students in Venezuela, trying to learn during an economic, political and humanitarian crisis is a daily struggle.

After the country’s economy collapsed in 2014, Venezuela experienced high rates of unemployment, violent crime, hunger and medical shortages. Approximately five million people fled the country in search of food, education, work and a better life. Students still in Venezuela must contend with the country’s crumbling education system — and now the COVID-19 pandemic is making it even harder to learn.

I spoke to four young women living in Venezuela about the challenges they’ve faced, how the pandemic is impacting their education and what leaders can do to better support them.

Karen Toledo (KT): How has the situation in Venezuela impacted your education in the last several years?

María Fernanda García, 16 (MFG): I was in Venezuela for the protests in 2017 and my school is on the other side of the river. So, for me to cross it was very difficult and I couldn’t go to school. I still did my best to go until I became trapped in a protest where people threw tear gas and I didn’t like it at all.

During the blackouts last year, my school didn’t have an electric plant so we went days without light and water. We didn’t have the internet which was hard because my school is very computer based. When President Maduro stated that classes were cancelled on Fridays, we lost a lot of schooling.

Gabriela Rauseo, 21 (GR): The situation has impacted all Venezuelans, especially students. It was in the last years of high school when I saw the biggest changes, for example, the mandate by the government regarding the elimination of science and humanities.

María Valeria de Sousa, 19 (MVD): My education has been fundamentally impacted in the last few years. The last years of middle school and high school were difficult transitions. The moment I graduated coincided with marches and with the national blackout in Venezuela. That was my senior year and there were a lot of changes to exams, all the plans of evaluation had to be changed and it was very tedious and complicated.

Samantha Añez, 20 (SA): I have been far behind, everything is much more tedious, issuing papers and student visas [to study abroad] is really horrible. Here everything has to be with money or you have to meet someone who can help you. If you don’t have that, processes can take months.

KT: In your opinion, what are the biggest difficulties that Venezuelan students — especially female students — face?

MFG: Generally the protests, the blackouts, the lack of opportunities and more than anything, getting to school. The truth is that for many people walking down the street is not safe because a gang might start shooting bullets. Security is needed. For the girls, I think it is machismo. It’s important to have sex education because there are many girls my age or younger that get pregnant. They have no way to move forward. They can’t continue their education and have to start working. They can’t make their dreams come true.

MVD: I think there are difficulties in general like losing electricity, losing teachers, etc. but for girls especially, girl-only schools rarely exist in the country. Another problem, even though many people don’t admit it, is the problem of machismo. In university especially, many male professors flirt with female students, they try to manipulate them into giving them something in return. I think it is very shameful for our society that this continues to happen.

GR: I consider that one of the greatest difficulties is economic difficulty. For girls, I have noticed several prejudices when a woman pursues a career that is preconceived as a career for men for example, mechanical engineering. Strange looks, scruples and judgments are directed to both men and women when they pursue careers that are not their own.

SA: Absolutely everything is complicated, the job opportunities to gain experience are almost null and if you get one, the salary does not provide at all. The situation has led girls and young women to do things that they do not want but must because they have no way to support themselves.

KT: Did you feel safe going to school before COVID-19?

GR: I have never felt safe on the streets of my country. Since I was little, I have witnessed and experienced many acts such as robberies, kidnappings, assaults, violence and even murders in the middle of the street. I was always accompanied by an adult when I went to school, sometimes even with more people.

MFG: In some moments, no, I haven’t felt safe because like I said with the protests and me not wanting to miss school, I got stuck in a protest and people started shooting and throwing tear gas. Right now [before COVID-19] I did feel safe going to school again but for many people that’s not the case. There are many children that don’t want to go to school because they don’t feel safe.

KT: How has COVID-19 impacted your studies? Have you been able to continue from home?

GR: I have been able to continue with classes from home, however, not everything is possible. The country's signals and antennas have been unstable for years, electricity services are too poor. I have had to face power failures, Wi-Fi and signal losses, which make everything more difficult.

MVD: The truth is that it has impacted my studies both positively and negatively. I can say that positively, the teachers and the students have all come together to rise to the challenge, because living in a country where obviously we live in crisis is difficult. Studying has always seemed like an impediment. Unfortunately, even though there are resources globally for someone [to attend a class virtually] is complicated because you can lose electricity, your Wi-Fi signal, you run out of data, there are many things that can happen.

MFG: When the pandemic started, my school was late in starting classes via Zoom. Parents complained because it wasn’t effective. My professors are all expats so the English embassy took them all out of Venezuela. So when the pandemic started, they weren’t here. Now we continue with our classes through Google Meet.

SA: I have not been able to start my university studies.

KT: What do you think the political leaders of your country can do to support Venezuelan students?

GR: Providing financial support. With public universities being so deteriorated (not all are open, lack of professors, structural damage, etc.), the private ones are the only ones that offer a complete education right now. The country's economic crisis and the high costs of majors at these universities prevent many Venezuelans from being able to start or continue studying. A great help could be financial scholarships for those people who have a great desire to study but who unfortunately, do not have enough money to achieve it.

MVD: The most important thing we need to recover is education. It is a big problem right now, and I think globally too, that the teaching profession is not highly demanded. Something leaders can do is build campaigns. People should have incentives to study teaching in Venezuela, because many professors immigrate.

MFG: They should improve public spaces for students who don’t have the opportunity to go to private schools because here in Venezuela, public schools are rarely available. Improving hygienic maintenance, getting better professors and providing resources. There are so many people who don’t even have pencils to write with or paper.

SA: I don't really think there is any leader in Venezuela.

These interviews were conducted in Spanish and translated to English. We have edited and condensed the responses for clarity.

Karen Toledo

(she/her) is the former executive coordinator at Malala Fund. She likes books, Chinese takeout and a good Latin playlist. You can follow her on Instagram.