BUENOS AIRES – More than 5 million students were affected Wednesday when teachers in the Argentine capital began a walkout to press for a pay increase.

The strike, the ninth by teachers this year, effectively shut down both public and private schools in Greater Buenos Aires, which is home to around a third of Argentina’s nearly 41 million people.

“If the salary situation doesn’t change and the authorities continue to affirm there will be no increase in 2010, classes will not begin next year,” the secretary-general of the Education Workers Union, Eduardo Lopez, told reporters Wednesday.

Besides a 20 percent pay hike, the teachers are demanding physical improvements at schools and a bigger education budget. EFE