Thousands of Puerto Rican teachers left their classrooms Friday to protest for higher wages and better working conditions in the midst of an economic downturn, The Associated Press reports.
More than 70 percent of teachers were absent from schools, gathering in the city centers of San Juan, Mayaguez and Aguada, where they marched and banged on pots to gain recognition for their cause.
Some schools were completely devoid of teachers.
“We are tired, tired of not being recognized,” said one elementary school teacher quoted by the AP. “It’s about time that teachers rise up and explain to the world the value of their profession.”
The teacher, Joalice Santiago, said that she and many of her colleagues have to work two or three jobs to make a living wage.
Puerto Rico is struggling economically in the wake of Hurricane Maria and a number of earthquakes. The prices of food, water and power are rising even as the territory works to emerge from bankruptcy.
Puerto Rico’s Association of Teachers recently spurned a plan that would increase teacher salaries to $2,220 a month rather than the association’s goal of $3,500.
“Bankruptcy cannot continue to be used as an excuse,” the association said, according to the AP. “Teachers do not want to be rendered invisible any more nor offered any more crumbs, but rather a concrete solution that provides them with a better quality of life.”
Puerto Rican Gov. Pedro Pierluisi said that he supports higher wages for teachers and other public servants.
“The fight has not ended,” Pierluisi said of efforts to increase pay.
He added: “Our students more than ever need the guarantee of adequate face-to-face education, and for this, they need their teachers in the classroom.”