Thousands of Colombian public school teachers took to Bogota’s streets as a two-day nation-wide strike by educators kicked off on Thursday.
The strike has been called against a backdrop of rising violence against teachers and social leaders, with teachers also demanding the government stick to agreements to increase education funding as well as to improve benefits for educators.
The protesters called on Colombian President Ivan Duque’s government to honour previous agreements with Thursday’s action preceding a general strike called for by unions and student organisations for 25 March 2020.
The country’s largest teachers’ union, the Colombian Federation of Education Workers (FECODE) stated that up to 300,000 educators throughout the country are participating in the strike – affecting classes for seven million students.
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