A clean uniform. Approved haircuts only. Saying hello when entering the classroom, and goodbye when leaving it. Reciting the national prayer to the flag.
Students are now required to follow all these requirements and more in El Salvador, where the government of President Nayib Bukele said it is restoring discipline to schools and critics argued that he is pushing the country back toward its era of military rule.
Over two terms, Mr. Bukele has taken more control of life in El Salvador, cracking down on gangs and restricting rights to make his country one of the safest in Latin America — and becoming hugely popular with voters in the process. Lawmakers in his party recently ended presidential term limits, and he has dismissed accusations of government abuses as false.
But his recent decision to hand the reins of the public school system to Karla Trigueros, a military officer without experience in education, has drawn strong criticism. Teachers, along with rights groups, have raised concerns about the new education minister’s proclamation of strict, nationalistic rules for students, calling them a slide backward in a country long scarred by abuses of security forces.
The Salvadoran school workers’ union called the appointment of Ms. Trigueros, a military captain and doctor, “absurd.”
“It is worrisome that the new minister is a military agent, as we can now speak of the lamentable militarization of Salvadoran public education, as occurred during the military dictatorships,” the union said in a statement, referring to the five decades of military rule in the 20th century.
Elevating Ms. Trigueros two weeks ago, Mr. Bukele promised “a profound transformation in our education system.”
“If we want to build the country we deserve, we must break paradigms,” he said. Mr. Bukele argued that it was necessary to overhaul schools to prevent gang recruitment there, in one instance posting a video from several years ago on social media of students flashing signs associated with gangs.
“This is how our schools used to be in El Salvador: recruitment centers for gang members,” he wrote. He added, “Disciplinary measures in schools are meant to prevent this tragedy from happening again. They say that those who do not know their history are condemned to repeat it. El Salvador will not repeat it, no matter how much they criticize us.”
After her appointment, Ms. Trigueros, who appears in her military uniform, quickly issued several memorandums to El Salvador’s 5,000 public schools.
In an “obligatory” Aug. 18 letter, she established rules for “strengthening discipline, order and personal appearance.” Students must have a “clean and tidy uniform,” an “appropriate haircut and proper personal appearance” and “orderly entry with respectful greetings,” she said.
Schools have long had dress codes but enforcement was spotty. Now, she said, school principals who did not comply would be considered in “serious breach of administrative responsibility.”
Three days later, Ms. Trigueros followed up with a memo about the creation of “Civic Mondays,” a mandatory weekly assembly early in the day. The assemblies must include an orderly formation, the presentation of the Salvadoran flag, the singing of the national anthem and a recitation of the national prayer to the flag.
The goal was strengthening “national identity, civic values and discipline,” the minister wrote.
On Sunday, Ms. Trigueros sent another letter to schools explaining a new code of student conduct. Demerits would be given to students who do not give a proper greeting when entering or leaving a classroom; do not say “please” or “thanks”; or use a vulgar or disrespectful tone.
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Javier Hernández, the president of an association that represents half of El Salvador’s roughly 1,000 private schools, applauded the government’s moves, saying that private schools were doing much of this already. Just because Ms. Trigueros has a military background did not mean she was incapable of leading a school system, he added.
“For us as private schools, we cannot rule out that she has begun her work very well,” he said.
But the teachers union and rights groups called the measures a warning sign.
“It’s another step within all of the antidemocratic and authoritarian practices that El Salvador has had for many years now,” said Ana María Méndez Dardón, the Central America director at the Washington Office on Latin America, a human rights group. “This is alarming.”
The teachers union said it was concerned that “the already exorbitant abuses of power against students are increasing” and that teachers faced “abuses and repression.” It also pointed to underfunded schools.
Ms. Méndez Dardón said there have been instances of violence in schools but that Mr. Bukele was equating small school gangs to sophisticated organized crime groups.
Some adolescents, she added, have been detained under Mr. Bukele’s state of emergency, which has allowed authorities to carry out mass arrests with no due process since 2022.
Order in schools is important, she said, but Mr. Bukele’s system “prioritizes obedience over critical learning.” Rejecting certain haircuts was reminiscent of his crackdown on imagery like certain tattoos or hairstyles that his government tied to gangs, she added. And she said it was an added burden on poorer families.
Elda Cantú contributed reporting.
James Wagner covers Latin America, including sports, and is based in Mexico City. A Nicaraguan American from the Washington area, he is a native Spanish speaker.
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