The 2021 school year will start next Wednesday, February 24, in thirteen districts of Argentina. However, the return to classes will be marked by a teachers' strike seeking better salary conditions.
On Wednesday, March 5, it will be the turn of the provinces of Catamarca, La Rioja, Misiones, Río Negro, Santiago del Estero, Tierra del Fuego, Tucumán, and Buenos Aires, which initially set March 1 as the starting date. The City of Buenos Aires, Chubut, Córdoba, Corrientes, Entre Ríos, Formosa, Jujuy, Mendoza, Salta, San Juan, San Luis, Santa Cruz, and Santa Fe will have already started classes on February 24.
The delay in the start of the school year in some provinces is due to March 1 being a Saturday, while March 3 and 4 are holidays for Carnival. The national teachers' strike was announced due to the government's failure to convene a negotiation table to establish a decent minimum salary for teachers.
In the last negotiation regarding the minimum teacher salary, which took place on July 1, a base salary of $420,000 was agreed upon, a figure that is below the basic food basket and the poverty line at present.
To deactivate the strike, the Ministry of Human Capital has called a meeting at the headquarters of the Ministry of Labor to discuss the Guaranteed Minimum Teacher Salary, in which the national teachers' unions and the Executive Committee of the Federal Council of Education will participate. Neuquén will start classes on Tuesday, February 25.
