Inclusion on education, Venezuelans attend classes now as never before
ABN 11/07/2008

Caracas, Jul 11 ABN.- More citizens in Venezuela are taking some kind of public education today as never before, as a result of the inclusive policies advanced by the Bolivarian Government in every stage of education.

Millions of young and adult people, through programs of formal education or through educative missions (Robinson, Ribas and Sucre), have undertaken the path towards the lights, towards a future of enlightenment and benefits for themselves, their family and the country.

The figure, in accordance with the Minister of Education, Hector Navarro, adds up to eleven million Venezuelans, it is to say, 39.28% of the total population of the country.

This progress is a result of the steady answer that, since the year 2003, the administration of President Hugo Chávez decided to give the huge debt on illiteracy, exclusion and school desertion, inherited from the governments of the fourth republic.

Poverty and marginality, main causes of desertion

The levels of poverty and exclusion during the last four decades of the last century explain the situation of education in Venezuela for that period.

According to figures of the Ministry of People Power for Food (MPPAL, http://www.minpal.gob.ve/intro/), for instance, between 1990 and 1998, poverty increased in 83.5%, while extreme poverty did the same in 118%.

Measured by homes, and for that same period, it also reached significant figures: poverty 85% and extreme poverty 102.3%.

Such situation explains school desertion, which according to a research carried out by Jesus Aguero Sosa, in 2002, just for the decade of the nineties, reached the rates of 275 thousand 264 students.

If we add up to these elements, the neoliberal initiatives that led to the restriction of the opportunities by privatizing the education offer and denying the principle of the teaching State, it is constituted a scheme of an expressed exclusion in many sectors of the population.

Constitutional encouragement

Basing upon article 102 of the Constitution of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, the revolutionary government rebelled against that situation.

This article reads as follows. 'Education is a human right and an essential social duty, it is democratic, free and compulsory. The State will assume it as indeclinable and with maximum interest in all its levels and modalities, and as instrument of the scientific, human and technological knowledge for the service of society.'

Further on, article 102 reads, 'Education is a public service and it is based upon the respect to all the trends of thought, in order to develop the creative potential of every human being and in complete exercise of his or personality in a democratic society based on the ethical valuation of the work and in the active, conscious and supportive participation on the processes of social transformation, inherent to the values of national identity and with a Latin American and universal vision. The State, with the participation of families and the society, will foster the process of citizen education, in accordance with the principles contained in this Constitution and in the Law.'

The missions begin

In May 2003, Mission Robinson I begins in order to struggle illiteracy in Venezuela. With the Cuban audiovisual method of literacy teaching 'Yo sí puedo' (or Yes, I can), 36 months later 1,482,543 people were literate, and by October 28th 2005, Venezuela was declared by the UNESCO as territory free from illiteracy.

That same year, missions Robinson II and III came up. Robinson II came to encourage the new literate and millions of stragglers in primary education to finish their studies. Robinson III was oriented to create reading groups aiming to set the habit of the recently learned.

In 2003 also started Mission Ribas, aiming to reintegrate 5 million young and adult people to secondary education; and Mission Sucre, oriented to achieve the integration to universities of more than 470 thousand high school graduated students without quotas.

Results

Aiming to achieve spaces of justice and equity, the educative missions of the Bolivarian Government have reached relevant levels of inclusion.

For instance, after Venezuela was declared territory free from illiteracy in October 2005, Mission Robinson I achieved in May 2007 the figure of 1,535,400 literate people.

Mission Robinson II records, for that year, 358,467 graduated of primary education and other 218,228 reintegrated to education.

Robinson III presents, constituted and active, 5 thousand 97 studying and working groups, integrated by 61 thousand 282 comrades, in an average of 12 members per group.

Therefore, by July 2007, Mission Ribas reintegrated approximately more than a million students to high school. Out of those, 500 thousand had graduated for that period, and other 556 thousand 156 were studying.

Likewise, by April 2007, Mission Sucre had achieved to reintegrate to universities 516,670 Venezuelans, through encouragement, the broadening of the capacity of the existing university infrastructure and the democratization of the right to study.

In fact, since 1999, the Bolivarian Government has inaugurated five new universities, the National Experimental University of Yaracuy (created under decree of president Rafael Caldera and opened under the administration of president Chávez); the Maritime University of the Caribbean; the National Experimental Polytechnic University of the Venezuelan Armed Forces (UNEFA); the National Experimental University Sur del Lago; and the Bolivarian University of Venezuela (spearhead of Mission Sucre).

Therefore, there have been created four new University Institutes of Technology, at the states of Bolivar, Apure, Barinas and in Tachira state.

Mission Alma Mater

Aiming to rectify this inclusive policy, on November 24th 2007, in Maracay, Aragua state, president Chávez announced the building of 57 new institutes of higher education, presenting to the country the Mission Alma Mater.

In that occasion, the President expressed the project to build 14 new territorial universities, 10 specialized universities, 4 university institutes and 29 technological institutes.

The 14 territorial universities would be located at states Lara, Amazonas, Aragua, Anzoategui, Carabobo, Miranda, Barinas, Cojedes, Merida, Apure, Zulia, Tachira, Portuguesa and the Capital District.

Besides, there are currently working 1,435 university villages around the whole country, with all the opportunities for education to continue increasing in quantity and, especially, in quality.

Before, there were not so many opportunities of study open to the public in Venezuela, and such percentage of Venezuelans (39.28% of the total population) walk through the understanding and knowledge towards a future of sovereignty and freedom.