Education is at the heart of Venezuela’s Bolivarian Revolution, but no thanks to teachers and their trade unions, according to Damelyn Yeguez, sub Secretary for Education in the Caracas Mayor’s office.
Visiting Venezuela to study the social ‘Missions’ of the Chavez administration was a humbling experience. Funded directly by the state oil company, PDVSA, there are a range of social ‘Missions’ aimed primarily at education and health, all focused on the most poverty stricken in society.
The Robinson Mission launched in July 1st 2003 aimed to reduce literacy levels and pull millions of Venezuelans from the shadows of ignorance. A supported video learning programme uses volunteer tutors and peer learning techniques to teach reading, writing and basic maths to 1.5 million Venezuelans. The first level Robinson programme lasts for 3 months. By October 28th 2005, some 128,967 volunteer tutors / facilitators in 136,041 classrooms had assisted 1,482,543 Venezuelans to read and write. Venezuela was declared, by UNESCO criteria, illiteracy free.
A ‘Robinson 2’ project, under the title “I can continue” has been launched with 104,171 volunteer tutors helping 1,468967 people in 99,171 classrooms. This is a 2 year programme aimed at covering 1st to 6th grade primary school learning. A further Robinson 3 programme teaches reading comprehension.
The Robinson programmes have been promoted by the President Hugo Chavez and the administration in a head-on awareness raising campaign to tackle initial fears and embarrassment of people. As with community education programmes in the UK, there are more female participants than male.
The Ribas Mission is a progression route from “Robinson” aimed at remedial high school level classes to the millions of people who were forced to drop out of high school.
The Sucre Mission is aimed at providing university access route focused on the disadvantaged. So far 429,215 students have been assisted, with scholarships awarded to 96412 of the very poorest Venezuelans. The Bolivarian University of Venezuela has opened its doors to thousands of students, studying in classrooms previously used as the luxurious offices of the oil oligarchs.
The Vuelvan Mission is a “back to work” mission aimed at preparing people for work, notably work in local co-operative business and agricultural enterprises.
These missions have been underpinned by other social missions such as Barrios Adenta – a health support scheme for poor ‘barrios’ (neighborhoods), the Mercal mission aimed at producing cheap basic foodstuffs for poor families through a very basic network of Co-Operative shops, and a veritable revolution in self help through local, barrio level, community councils. Modest training grants (around $75 a month) to participate in the Missions represent a real incentive, but do not entirely explain high rates of participation. In a country without a social welfare safety net, education is seen as a vital means of progressing.
What is important to understand is that, although this vital work has been funded by the Government via the oil company PDVSA, it is undertaken almost entirely outside the Ministry for Education. To understand this, we need to put the Missions work in political context.
Venezuela is a country with extremes of poverty and wealth. Back in 1994, 4 years before taking power, Hugo Chavez said that “There is no way that the system can cure itself… 60% of Venezuelans live in poverty… in 20 years more than $200bn just evaporated. So where is the money? In foreign bank accounts of almost everyone who has been in power in Venezuela.”
The political system in Venezuela from 1958 to 1998 was nominally democratic. The two main parties were the hegemonic Accion Democratica (which could be loosely termed as Social Democrats) and Copei (Christian Democrats). Through the pact of Punto Fijo both sought to limit opportunity for other political groupings. Both had vast memberships, as joining was a means of getting on, getting influence or getting a job. Accion Democratica, in particular, enjoyed cosy relations with the Confederacion de Trabajadores Venezolanos (CTV) union movement (which in part, was funded through the American Federation of Labour (AFLCIO) Teacher unions are affiliated to the CTV. Equally, Civil servants in the Ministries, including Education, would be largely comfortable with the status quo and resistant to change. It should be noted that the TUC has established fraternal relations with UMT, a new union movement which – whilst not necessarily pro-Chavez - accepts and works within Venezuelan Constitution and democracy.
In the 1960’s and 70’s the governments undertook significant infrastructural improvements, but the mass of a poor society were largely disengaged from political life. The economy slumped in the 80’s and was subjected to brutal neo-liberal reforms which sharply affected the poorest. Chavez’s rise was linked to the gradual politicization and mobilization of a vast ‘underclass’ of the excluded. It should be noted, however, that although the administration is redistributing oil revenue in programmes for the poorest, the basic structure of the economy has not been radically altered, and Venezuela’s wealthy classes have remained largely untouched.
Prior to the election of Chavez in 1998 it had been the intention of the government to devolve education to trusted private or 3rd parties, often the Churches. Schooling was Eurocentric in nature, with little focus on local, Venezuelan or Latin American influences. On taking power, Chavez sought to work within the established structures, significantly raised the Education budget and teachers pay, and seeking to extend the school day (rapid population growth meant that many schools operated a split shift system, with children getting to school for a half day only).
Damelyn Yeguez takes up the story:
”Unions behaved poorly. Teaching staff were and are actively involved in the Opposition. Many played a leading role in the embargo” The 2002 “embargo” – best understood as a “bosses strike” or lock out - was a full frontal strike led and co-ordinated by US backed Opposition groups, seeking to topple Chavez and return to the old system.
Yeguez is responsible for 94 schools at primary, secondary level. The Mayors office was given a role in Education, alongside the Ministry, in 2000 – the municipality being trusted to reflect, more accurately, the needs of society as a whole.
“Amongst the problems we have inherited are the quality of learning, low enrollments, the poor conditions of school buildings and the health of the children. In addition the content of education had little emphasis on reflecting local, national and Latin American culture and history. “
In response, the Municipality has tackled the problems in a range of ways. There has been a growth of Bolivarian schools. Over 1500 Bolivarian schools have been opened in neighbourhoods and areas with traditionally little or no access to quality education. The Government has also sought to introduce a new “Bolivarian Curriculum” to include more accurate historical information on Venezuelan and Latin American history. With population growth, a new school system is growing around the old. A programme to retire older teachers, and teachers resistant to change has been put into effect. A new Teacher training programme has been instituted, together with a new programme of recruiting 3 year internships (teachers on initial three year contracts).
There has been a emphasis on better school meals with strong efforts to recruit parents as cooks to ensure the quality of food (a sort of Jamie Oliver scheme, without the parental resistance), with further plans to institute programmes of school sports and school educational trips.
It should be stressed that these reforms have not been without problems. The Asamblea de Education, funded by the US ‘National Endowment for Democracy’ has opposed all Chavez promoted educational reform legislation. Its leader, Leonardo Carvajal, has been a trenchant opponent. The Catholic Church, which runs many schools and is a major part of the educational infrastructure has been a formal part of the US funded opposition, together with the opposition political parties, the private media, corporate business interests and some dissident military officers(1).
Damelyn Yeguez stressed again and again the degree to which nutrition is a key educational priority in tackling low enrollment. This reflects the impoverished nature of many of the ‘barrios’ and is also tackled through the social missions’ networks of soup kitchens – providing a wholesome midday meal.
One of the most successful interventions in improving school attendance has been a system of insurance, linked to attendance, for children providing cover (in or out of school) for major health and accident costs (in or out of school), funeral costs and other benefits.
More than anything, the system of Missions and improvements to access to the mainstream system have provided hope. Aspirations were palpably rising. Highly politicized barrios are starting to see education as a key tool for progress. Nowhere is this better illustrated than in the revival of classical music within the Jose Marti classical music school, a national programme based in the barrio of Sarria in Caracas. Across Venezuela a quarter of a million young people spend 6 afternoons a week for 2pm to 6pm studying classical music. This social project involves children, living in unthinkable circumstances, breaking through the vicious cycle of poverty. The system is now being imitated by the Scottish Arts Council.
Our delegation saw a humanity at the heart of the vision of the Bolivarian Government. The stories of the people we met were inspirational - told as life changing experiences. At the end of a hectic 10 days of visiting projects, neighbourhoods, politicians and administrators, it was fascinating to see a society working out ideas based on putting “the human being at the heart of all development – “people first”. Poverty can be seen in physical conditions, infrastructure and public health. Financially many Venezuelans are in dire straights. There is, however, no poverty of vision, or energy and – if Chavez’s Bolivarian revolution is given time to evolve – the humanity at its heart will reap its rewards.
Mark Langhammer has just returned from a 10 day visit to Venezuela as part of a joint Irish Congress of Trade Unions and Irish Labour Party delegation.
1) A full account of US efforts to fund opposition political and civil society groups in Venezuela is undertaken within US attorney Eva Golinger’s “The Chavez Code” ISBN959-09-0307-X
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