Schooling for Sustainable Development in South Asian Countries

Chapter 6 Venezuela and Education Transformation for the Development of the People Rosa López de D’Amico, Maritza Loreto, and Orlando Mendoza The first duty of a government is to give education to the people Simon Bolivar (1992)1 Introduction To write about education in Venezuela in only one chapter is indeed challenging, maybe even more challenging than the huge changes that have occurred in the education system especially in the last ten years. Before 1999, there were changes marked by the country’s historical development (López de D’Amico and González 2006), nevertheless the changes that have taken place in the last ten years start with the constitution and national education legislation. Fortunately we can say that educational changes have been made for the benefit of Venezuelan society. Until recently, when people referred to Venezuela they tended to associate it with oil and beauty contests. However, due to the mass media there are now two diverse views, either it is seen as a revolutionary vibrant country or as a place where there is social tension, it all depends on the view of those who control the 1 Simón Bolívar (1783–1830) is the most important Venezuelan national hero and the precursor of independence in the Latin American continent. He is regarded in Latin America as a hero, visionary, revolutionary and liberator. During his short life he led Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Panama, Peru and Venezuela to independence and laid the foundations of Latin American ideology on democracy. R.L. de D’Amico (*) Research Centre for Studies in Physical Education, Health, Sports, Recreation and Dance, Pedagogical University Experimental Libertador (UPEL), Maracay, Venezuela e-mail: [email protected] M.฀Loreto฀•฀O.฀Mendoza Pedagogical University Experimental Libertador (UPEL), Maracay, Venezuela M.L. de Amorim Soares and L. Petarnella (eds.), Schooling for Sustainable Development in South America, Schooling for Sustainable Development 2, DOI 10.1007/978-94-007-1754-1_6, © Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2011 87 88 R.L. de D’Amico et al. information. But what is clear is that we have the oldest democracy in Latin America and currently it is the place where people can express their ideas openly and where changes are the products of democratic elections. These can be sustained by those who live there and have experienced the social changes in the last fifty years or more. The Constitution of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, adopted in 1999 after consulting the citizens of this country, comprehensively addresses the type of education the population should receive. Its conceptual structure is based on: access to knowledge and information, cooperation as a means of participation and involvement of citizens, social economy, public security, science and technology, responsibility of all citizens in public affairs, endogenous and sustainable development, employment, inclusion and social justice, social security, social control, participative democracy, responsibility, communication, popular sovereignty and missions. It also includes international aspects related to the multi-polarity of international society, Latin American and Caribbean integration, security and national defence. In the particular case of the social missions, relating to the area of education, the Venezuelan state has implemented the Mission Robinson I, Mission Robinson II, Rivas Mission, the Sucre Mission, that together with the Science and Culture Missions complement what constitutes the entire educational system, designed to combat exclusion and promote participation, inclusion and reinsertion of Venezuelans who at some point have dropped out of the education system. Mission Robinson I is aimed at combatting illiteracy. Mission Robinson II is aimed at people who have learned to read and write and want to continue to study and achieve the sixth grade (year 6). Rivas Mission serves peoples who were excluded from school after they have achieved sixth grade, so it is desirable that they complete high school. Finally, the Sucre Mission seeks to provide an opportunity for students who have finished high school, and could not enter universities in the past, to continue their studies so that they could attain a college degree. These educational missions constitute a complementary system of education that the state provides to include those people who for various reasons have not achieved a formal education, particularly in the past. In recent years, these programmes have given opportunities for many to have access to education. The state also has its traditional education system or mainstream education system, consisting of pre-schools, elementary (primary) schools, high schools, technical colleges and universities. They develop the programmes for the Bolivarian Education: Simoncito (Little Simon) for children younger than 6 years; Bolivarian Schools (grades 1–6), High Schools: (years 1–5 or 6) or Robinsonian Technical High Schools (years 1–6) and University. This structure of the Venezuelan educational system has a philosophical underpinning in the Constitution of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela under the Latin American ideal and endogenous and sustainable development. Taking into account previous considerations, we discuss whether it is possible to evaluate an educational system with these characteristics using quantitative evaluation reference schemes that do not consider within their own parameters of 6 Venezuela and Education Transformation for the Development of the People 89 measurement, integration, participation or values and focus attention on performance and the structural conditions of the system. The products of the education system cannot be assessed only from a quantitative point of view, in terms of mastery of learning or achievement and accomplishment, or material conditions of the institutions that provide education for the population. Particularly because Venezuelan education is based on humanism and solidarity, priority over material conditions, citizenship, responsibility and participation are key elements of the constitutional principles. The present chapter is divided into four sections; it starts with the introduction, then continues with a short account of the experience in Aragua state, then continues with a review of the constitution, later the focus is on the education missions in place and finally the chapter ends up with discussion and conclusions. A Glance at Aragua State Experience … either we invent or we err Simon Rodriguez (Rumazo 2008)2 Loreto (2004) points out that it was from 1991 that discussions began in Aragua state about the possibility of achieving the beginning of a transformative process through the state apparatus. It started with proposals from the Ministry of Education. In ‘Barbacoa’, teachers, parents and representatives discussed many things together, including the exclusive nature of education particularly in the southern towns of Aragua state, where poverty and inequality were common elements. They participated in the construction of the Aragua Educational Project in which the basic aim was to achieve the democratic participation of the people (teachers, students, parents, and communities). At the same time, important political changes were occurring in the country, such as the elections of state governors and the creation of new structures for state institutions, and new possibilities for reaching the basic structure of the school system. It was understood that there were not many opportunities for changes due to the policies imposed on Latin America for decentralisation of educational programmes financed through the World Bank (WB) – International Monetary Fund (IMF) – including teacher training, school physical infrastructure, teachers’ support centres, and libraries. There was no reference to the curriculum which, basically, had to be evaluated and transformed. Nevertheless, the situation was used to set up working groups using action research to analyse aspects of regional education. Significant progress was made primarily on a new vision of school management and teacher training. The IMF’s prescription for Latin 2 Simón Rodríguez (Caracas, Venezuela, 1769 – Perú, 1854), known during his exile from Spanish America as Samuel Robinson, was a South American philosopher and educator, notably Simón Bolívar’s tutor and mentor. 90 R.L. de D’Amico et al. American education focused on strengthening the Basic Education programme which began in the 1980s and was reviewed in 1998. It included a curriculum design for the first and second stages of basic education, with the implementation of transversal axes, planning classroom educational projects and pedagogical projects. These were introduced despite the fact that since 1992 the State Education Office (SEO) had implemented other projects and innovations which included a total 25 pilot schools. In other words, the IMF recommendations were not targeting the real problems existing in a type of education that could help to look at endogenous development and to target global problems such as environmental education, to mention but a few issues. In 1997 the voices became stronger and people were speaking about the most important historical process in our country, because for the first time ever Venezuelans were experiencing participation in a constituent assembly to draft a new constitution and with it a new national project. A group of educators from around the country formed a National Front for Educational Transformation (Constituent). In 1998 ideas and proposals for educational change were written into a text titled School for Life and Freedom. This proposal was seen by the newly appointed Minister of Education (1999) who invited us to join his team (Loreto 2004). The Ministry of Education started working with the SEO on the specific proposal and then the constitutional process of the National Constituent Education was formally initiated in the country. The debate took place in most schools of Aragua state, each school submitted its proposal about ‘the country we have and the one we want’, ‘the teachers we have and what we want’, teacher education, school infrastructure, educational partner programmes, socio-economic, medical and recreational services, union status, and other topics. There were intensive and extensive working days conducted at different levels: parish, municipality and regional level. These produced a first document entitled Aragua Educational Proposal for the Construction and Systematisation of the National Education Project which expressed for the first time the ideas, feelings and words of educators from the grassroots. In the past the education system had been designed by experts, in addition to being an almost exact copy of educational models from other countries. It is important to acknowledge the integration of SEO and the Ministry of Education sector in all conferences as well as the efforts made to coordinate education policies for the state. This document was delivered to the Ministry of Education and the representatives of Aragua state in the National Assembly. The National Education Project (PEN – 1st version) emerged in the systematisation of the proposals from all states. One of the central ideas of this methodology and the project itself is that social change is not imposed but is constructed collectively and permanently. At present, it is advancing with different degrees of development in various areas of the country on matters relating to curriculum, school and community, teacher training and teachers’ working conditions, among others, encompassing all that constitutes an educational project. The Ministry of Education was changed in 2002 to the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports (MECD), having a Vice-Ministry of Educational Affairs, Sports, 6 Venezuela and Education Transformation for the Development of the People 91 Culture and Higher Education, the latter then became the Higher Education Ministry (this restructuring at first did not help as there remained many vices inherited from the old structure: disruption, patronage, disorganisation, poor communication, etc.). Officially, the MECD and the Educational Office in each state (SEO) were required to create a new institutional framework that brought power to the people, on the principles of shared responsibility and cooperation. Education and the Constitution of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela Without popular education there will be no true society Simón Rodríguez (Rumazo 2008) December 19th, 1999, marked the beginning of the new constitutional document that governs the fate of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela (Constitution of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela (CRBV)). From that moment a process in this country began aimed at reshaping the Republic through collective construction. The preamble states: …a democratic, participatory and self-reliant, multiethnic and multicultural society in a just, federal and decentralised State that embodies the values of freedom, independence, peace, solidarity, the common good, the nation’s territorial integrity, comity and the rule of law for this and future generations; guarantees the right to life, work, learning, education, social justice and equality, without discrimination or subordination of any kind… (CRBV 2006: 5). The preamble to the Constitution of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela outlined the sort of citizen required to build a society in which social injustice is removed and equity is achieved (MECD 2002). However, even though these are the particular principles of the Venezuelan state, it is necessary in order to achieve the required transformation to review theoretical and philosophical concepts that underlie a model still under construction and may be contradictory to it because they belonged to the previous scheme. Article 1 of the Constitution, states that, The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela is irrevocably free and independent, basing its moral property and values of freedom equality, justice and international peace on the doctrine of Simón Bolívar, the Liberator (ibid.: 7). Freedom must be understood beyond the concept of membership of a geographical space. It must be viewed from the standpoint of people’s independence to act and make their own decisions without blackmail or business ties, political, cultural, ideological and military, to enable the achievement of sovereignty, immunity, territorial integrity and national self-determination. 92 R.L. de D’Amico et al. Article 2 of the Constitution states that, Venezuela constitutes itself as a Democratic and Social State of Law and Justice, which holds as superior values of its legal order and actions those of life, liberty, justice, equality, solidarity, democracy, social responsibility and, in general, the preeminence of human rights, ethics and political pluralism (ibid.). Article 3 is expressed as, …essential purposes of the State are the protection and development of the individual and respect for the dignity of the individual, the democratic exercise of the will of the people, the building of a just and peace-loving society, the furtherance of the prosperity and welfare of the people and the guaranteeing of the fulfillment of the principles, rights and duties established in this Constitution. Education and work are the fundamental processes for guaranteeing these purposes” (ibid.). These first two articles of the CRBV initially point out the direction to follow to fulfill the purposes of the Venezuelan state. Knowledge of human rights and their defence, as well as personal development, peace and welfare of the people, can only be achieved through the sum of the consciousness of individuals belonging to the same community, and this is only possible through education and work. Later in the CRBV, Article 102 establishes the compulsory and free characteristics of education; corresponding to Articles 2 and 3, because historically there were Venezuelans who did not have access to it. In the period between 1958 and 1999 education had been changing to become privatised, contributing to the exclusion of the disadvantaged. In Article 102 it is emphasised that, “The State assumes responsibility for it as an irrevocable function of the greatest interest, at all levels and in all modes, as an instrument of scientific, humanistic and technical knowledge at the service of society” (p.38). This ensures state involvement in the shaping of the society and, moreover, it gives education its rightful role in shaping the community. Likewise, the state assumes a leading role in education and confronts the neo-liberal doctrine of non-participation and exclusion in fundamental aspects such as, health, education, economics, national defence, sovereignty, self-determination of peoples and building a pluralistic and egalitarian society by citizens. Education is understood to be a ‘public service’, which gives it a character of special interest to every citizen. It becomes an object of participation “and is based on all currents of thought”, thus giving it a character which embraces diversity and universality of all members of this multicultural society. This is complemented by the statement that declares that education has, “…the purpose of developing the creative potential of every human being and the full exercise of his/her personality in a democratic society based on valuing the work ethic and the active, conscious and joint participation in the processes of social change” (ibid.). This was visible and necessary from the time of the adoption of the Constitution and the project that was planted with it was imbued with the values of identity and a Latin American and universal vision. The participation of society is in the last lines of the Article where it is stated that the State with the participation of families and society promotes the process of civic education in accordance with the principles contained in the CRBV and the law. Article 103 states that everyone has the right to a full, high-quality, ongoing education under conditions and circumstances of equality, subject only to such 6 Venezuela and Education Transformation for the Development of the People 93 limitations as derive from the person’s own aptitudes, vocation and aspirations. Education is compulsory from the maternal to the diversified secondary level. The State is obliged to serve the population in relation to education from conception and therefore to take care of the mother and family. Education is also free up to university undergraduate level and the state provides the level of investment as recommended by the United Nations Organisation. The state will create and maintain institutions and services sufficiently equipped to ensure access, permanence and completion in the education system. This constitutes a key element against social exclusion and school dropout. In this Article, to ensure inclusion of all, it indicates that the law shall guarantee equal attention to people with special needs or disabilities and those who are deprived of their freedom or lack of basic conditions for their incorporation and permanence in the educational system. Finally, in support of investment it establishes that the contribution from the private sectors to projects and programmes of public education will be recognised as tax deductible on income according to the pertinent law. Education is conceived as a whole beyond the school environment and this is part of the curriculum, to demystify the idea that school is an isolated case of reality and activities outside the classroom or outside of schools are extracurricular. This is why it is conceived that culture and sport should be an integral part of any curriculum proposal. This includes all cultural, idiosyncratic and traditional events from all regions, as well as sport as an integral element of personal training. This is based on Articles 100, 111 and 107. Article 100 states: The folk cultures comprising the national identity of Venezuela enjoy special attention, with recognition of and respect for intercultural relations under the principle of equality of cultures. Incentives and inducements shall be provided for by law for persons, institutions and communities which promote, support, develop or finance cultural plans, programmes and activities within the country and Venezuelan culture abroad. The State guarantees cultural workers inclusion in the social security system to provide them with a dignified life, recognising the idiosyncrasies of cultural work, in accordance with law. In terms of environmental rights there is a whole chapter in the CRBV dedicated to them but besides that the environmental issue is indicated in various Articles of the Constitution. Moreover, in terms of environmental education, Article 107, in particular, emphasises that environmental education is obligatory in the various levels and modes of the education system, as well as in informal civic education. The teaching of the Spanish (Castilian) language, history and Venezuelan geography and the principles of Bolivarian thought are mandatory in public and private institutions, up to the diversified cycle level. This is followed up, after much controversy, in the recently approved Organic Law of Education (LOE 2009) which clearly states the relevance of environmental education and includes it in the content of the curriculum. Environmental education has been defined since 1979 by the International Union for Nature Conservation as a process, so in that sense it looks at promoting in individuals an adequate relationship with the environment. It is proposed that this action could be achieved acknowledging the values of the environment as well as building a whole body of knowledge that promotes environmental education and a literacy 94 R.L. de D’Amico et al. programme on environmental education. In that way the connection between knowledge and the values of education could support environmental education. This could not be achieved in Venezuela because environmental education was not even included as a strong component in the education system. The CRBV provided a solid base for including environmental education in the education system; it does indeed give a big push towards environmental education. Nevertheless, the changes at school did not occur because of the big debates that started against the constitution and the government itself. So the constitution was in place but the curriculum was the same as before 1999, until it started to be changed and content such as environmental education started to be included in the parallel projects that the government was developing (missions). Currently, it is clearly established in the LOE that environmental education is compulsory at all levels of the education system. Nevertheless, there is still a gap between what is established in the CRBV and LOE because contents are still developed in isolation and not integrated with other areas of the curriculum. More time is needed to implement and internalise all that is desired in the LOE. Environmental education is directly related to sustainable development because the purpose of the latter is to propose a new way, through reflection and changing global actions, towards a new sort of development and to start thinking about what for, who for and how this development should be undertaken. It has to be acknowledged that there has been an effort to build a body of theory of environmental education and sustainable development as both look at an education directed towards a long-lasting and fair world for all kinds of living things. In Venezuela there are projects being developed at universities, government institutions (in combination with the agendas of several ministries) and NGOs that promote and develop environmental themes according to the characteristics of the locality, involving schools and communities. An interesting project has been conducted by a research cluster in environmental education (NIAFE: Research Centre for the Environment and Specific Purpose) located at the UPEL (Universidad Pedagógica Experimental Libertador – Teachers Training University), which year after year approaches the same community and its students and works with the school children using various strategies to help them become aware of the environment in which they live and what they can do in order to have a better conscience about it. The concept of ‘ecological schools’ or ‘green schools’ also exists but so far these schools have been isolated experiences. Stronger emphasis has been given towards the denouncement of ecological damage that has been caused to the environment. At this stage there has been an awakening of interest in environmental education, but there is still a long way to go. In terms of teachers, and teachers training, we have made a step forward in the sense that there have been graduate programmes created to train professionals in environmental education. In the past it could be the biology and/or geography teacher who would refer to environmental education in a very peripheral way. But this is starting to change, and in undergraduate programmes there are courses in environmental education. Environmental education as presented in all the programmes is closely associated with sustainable development as established in the CRBV. 6 Venezuela and Education Transformation for the Development of the People 95 Education and the National Economic and Social Welfare Development Plan (2001–2007) A responsible State and with real authority assumes as its role the general orientation of education. This guidance expresses its political doctrine and therefore forms the conscience of citizens Luis Beltrán Prieto Figueroa (2002)3 The constitutional framework of Venezuelan education is implemented and made effective through the Plan for Economic Development and Social Welfare (PDESN 2001). This includes, among other objectives, achieving social balance. This is necessary to meet the needs of Venezuelan society. There is a requirement both to transform the material and social conditions of the majority of the population, historically separated and detached from equitable access to wealth and welfare, and to build a new citizenship status, based on full recognition and exercise of the rights guaranteed to citizens, as human beings and social subjects with autonomy in all spheres of social life. This is a different rationale from what has occurred in the past and continues to exist in many places today, that is, respect for and protection of and defence of the quality of life for all inhabitants of Venezuela. It is necessary to deconstruct the notions of universal social rights, equity of access to resources, means of support and the material and welfare conditions, since the practice is far from the theory. On the other hand, the humanistic character on which these ideas are based requires a thorough review of the interpretation of these concepts in today’s society. Since education is a right established in the Constitution of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, there is in the Plan for Economic Development and Social Welfare (PDESN) a guarantee for access, permanence and continuity in response to social needs so as to ensure the conditions of universality with equity. This establishes that the quality of education is conceived from two perspectives: formal quality and political quality. The former concerns the technical and scientific capacity, the development of learning capabilities with regard to content and the use of methods of academic relevance. The latter, on the other hand, refers to the development of citizens, empowering them with the values of solidarity, participatory and protagonist democracy that lead to the construction of citizenship: the ability to be the subject of individual and collective social action, to organise themselves through associations and cooperatives, to cultivate cultural identity, with universal and critical significance to obtain and practise their rights. As part of these objectives, it is proposed: to guarantee access and permanence in the educational system; to extend the coverage of enrolment levels and modalities; to articulate education with systems for producing goods and services; to develop its 3 Luis Beltrán Prieto Figueroa (1902–1993), the educator and Venezuelan politician who struggled hard for education for the masses. 96 R.L. de D’Amico et al. infrastructure and educational resources in different levels and modalities; to achieve equity in higher education; to provide for the comprehensive care of children and youth not included in the education system; and to eradicate illiteracy. The foundations laid down in the Constitution and outlined in the Plan of Economic and Social Development of the Nation 2001–2007 demand a reconceptualisation of education in general. This is not just from within but also from the vision and understanding of it from a global perspective and the influence it exerts on international organisations of which Venezuela is a member. Since 1959, developed countries have been implementing standardised tests in order to compare the quality levels of educational systems based on standards that aim to measure the performance levels in mathematics and science to varying degrees. Among these tests are the TIMSS (Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study) developed by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA), the IALS (International Adult Literacy Survey) developed by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) (1994) and the Latin American Laboratory for Assessment Quality of Education (LLECE), founded in 1994 and coordinated by the Regional Bureau for Education in Latin America and the Caribbean, UNESCO. The latter organisation has proposed an ‘ideal profile’ school that would allow greater achievement levels of students. All of the studies mentioned above and other new initiatives point to measuring the achievements of students associated with their participation in society. As standards driven assessments, they are directly linked to a single component of the curriculum, the official, leaving out many influential elements in education. The Constitution framed the nation in mainstream humanistic philosophy and it is necessary to recover the true meaning of many of the concepts found in documents generated by summits, conventions and international organisations. In practice, each of these concepts has an accepted meaning per se, removed from the reality in which they may be applied. Globalisation has permeated everything and, as defined by Castro (1999), it is the unity of all inequalities. In this sense, the quality standards of education established by international organisations do not necessarily have to match the new reality as described in the legal framework in Venezuela. It is imperative to review what is meant by quality of education in the international framework and the current order; it is also necessary to define whether these measures correspond to the reality of the Venezuelan people. Venezuela is a member of several international institutions intended to improve the minimum conditions for education in the participating nations. Among these organisations is UNESCO, which in March 2001 convened in Cochabamba (Bolivia) the 7th Meeting of the Intergovernmental Regional Committee of the Major Project Ten-Year Education in Latin America and the Caribbean (PROMEDLAC VII). Present at that meeting were other members from different regions, UN agencies, inter-governmental and non-governmental organisations and representatives of various institutions and foundations (Declaration of Cochabamba, UNESCO 2001a, b). In that meeting participants discussed the results of the evaluation of 20 years of the Major Project of Education in Latin America and the Caribbean as well as the possible political scenarios, social, economic and cultural environments in which education 6 Venezuela and Education Transformation for the Development of the People 97 would be developed in the region over the next fifteen years. However, it was not possible for such a meeting to foresee the political, economic, social and cultural development of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela for the period 2001–2015, and the qualitative or quantitative advancements in each of the scenarios studied for the country. This meeting led to a series of recommendations on education policy at the beginning of the twenty-first century, demarcated into nine sections: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. The new meaning of education in a globalised and constantly changing world; Learning and attention to diversity in quality: priorities of education policies; Strengthening and redefinition of the role of teachers; Service management processes of learning and participation; Expansion and diversification of learning opportunities throughout life; Media and technology for the transformation of education; Funding for quality learning for all; Information systems for the improvement of educational policies and practices; International cooperation. The changes started in the CRBV and the missions and projects that have been created by the Venezuelan government can be looked at in the context of these nine sections. Besides, they have been reinforced in the LOE approved in 2009. Simultaneously these issues are also part of the agenda of several government ministries and secretariats. A new meaning to education has been given that encompasses principles of inclusion, multiculturalism, multiethnicism, and plurilingualism with a strong qualitative focus based on humanistic principles. The education or teacher training programmes have been increased significantly at universities and the funding for teachers and students at all levels has been impressive. An example of policies is the LOE itself plus the projects created. An example that combines international cooperation, education policies, teacher training and the humanistic perspective is the creation of the Iberoamerican Sports University initiated in 2006 where students from Venezuela and low income developing countries come to study under scholarship programmes. The Bolivarian Education System Start the social building by its basements! Not by its roof…. Children are the stones Simón Rodríguez (Rumazo 2008) ‘Education for All’ is the main goal of the Bolivarian Education System, in contrast to the neo-colonisation, acculturation, alienation, elites and exclusion that characterised previous educational arrangements. The Bolivarian education system generates a new emphasis on State-Family-Society, where the school is a space that focuses the actions and organisation of state power, promoting participation, making necessary changes in institutions and culture, strengthening an endogenous development model and 98 R.L. de D’Amico et al. sovereignty, correcting imbalances and achieving environmental sustainability and a decent quality of life. All these factors are united in this new education paradigm which is central to people as social, responsive and active participants in the transformation of Venezuelan society. Education is conceived as a human continuum in which services, teaching and learning processes are a complex unit having corresponding levels and modalities. Education covers the stages of development of each individual looking at his/her physical, biological, psychological, cultural, social, environmental and historical characteristics. The Bolivarian education system seeks to eliminate the social debt generated by the system of exclusion in order to create a social equilibrium model. Ongoing programmes ensure access, retention and continuing education for everyone in the education system. The State, together with the family and society, universalises the right to education as a human right and a fundamental social duty (Rojas 2005). Basic education according to the new Law of Education (2009) refers to three stages of education: initial education (0–6 years old), primary school (6–12 years old: 6 grades) and high school (13–18 years old: 5 or 6 years). In the following paragraphs we present a brief summary of the different programmes. Simoncito (Little Simon Project) Project has been developed by the Ministry of Education and Sports of Venezuela (starting in early 2004 and still continuing) with the aim of providing the nation’s children with the early education and care they need from pregnancy up to 6 years, with the participation of their families and their communities. This initial education is divided into two sub-levels: maternal (0–3) and pre-school (4–6 years old). The Bolivarian Schools Project is a Venezuelan state policy that identifies education as a human continuum. It comprises initial education (Simoncito) comprising the first 6 years/grades of school. The Bolivarian High School is an educational institution that prepares students in their infancy and adolescence for endogenous development and sovereignty through a new conception of school that emphasises Bolivarian identity and citizenship. The Robinsoniana Technical Schools conceive education and work as fundamental processes for technical and personal development, respecting the dignity of students and preparing them for the democratic exercise of popular will and the construction of a fair, peaceful and loving society. There is a strong tendency to look at areas related to agriculture and in recent years they have also included such areas as nursing, accounting and mechanics. Ribas Mission is an educational programme promoted by the Ministry of Education of Venezuela in order to include all those who have been unable to complete high school. It uses the system of “teleclass (recorded TV class)” which provides audio-visual aided instruction led by a facilitator. Mission Robinson “I can” was aimed at eliminating illiteracy among young people and adults across the country. The second phase of the Mission (Robinson II) has as its objective the completion of the sixth grade at school by all participants, as well as the consolidation of literacy. Sucre Mission aims at decentralising higher education. It aims at providing university education to all regions and localities in the country so that the great mass of high school graduates who, so far have been excluded, may benefit. They will be incorporated or enabled to continue their studies in higher education. 6 Venezuela and Education Transformation for the Development of the People 99 The Strategic Plan for Information Technology and Communication in the National Education Sector (PETISCEN) aims to increase the quality, democratisation and national relevance of the educational process and the effectiveness and efficiency of administration and management of the Ministry of Popular Power for Education (the name was changed in 2008). The idea of a university for all suffered in the last decades of the last century, as the State reduced its responsibilities for education. From 1989 to 1998, investment in higher education in Venezuela showed a downward trend affected by the propensity to make budget cuts in all sectors of the social field. Particularly, this was a strategy for building sustainability of the proposed privatisation of higher education. This resulted in a large social debt accumulated as university enrolment decreased, resulting in the exclusion of students from the poorest sectors. Admission to higher education sectors favoured those with higher incomes, the residents of large cities and students from private schools (Fuenmayor and Vidal 2000). Along with this phenomenon, the management of higher education changed dramatically in favour of private management of education. However, since 1999 the trend in the decline of the public budget dedicated to education has been reversed, increasing from 3.2% of GDP in 1998 to 4.6% in 2002 and 7% in 2005, in addition to the budget allocated to the Sucre Mission and the creation of new universities. This percentage is significant as compared to the whole of Latin America, which spends on average 4.4% of GDP on education, though it has a long way to go to achieve the levels of investment in the European Union or the United States of America. Conclusion An ignorant people is the blind instrument of its own destruction. Simon Bolivar (Prieto 2002) The Bolivarian Education System is a way of achieving the United Nation’s millennium goals. As referred to earlier in this chapter, the CRBV establishes the citizens’ right to education and the importance of public schools in social integration. Education is both compulsory and free. The CRBV acknowledges the rights of groups and marginalised minorities and proposes ways of providing citizens with access to empowerment. It also proposes the universalisation of rights and social balance in providing the same rights to all (MECD 2004). Education is understood to be a human right, without any sort of discrimination and the government is providing the means for achieving this through more schools, high schools and universities, staff, programmes and resources, so making it possible to speak of equity as an ethical and political principle. Quality of education is important but it is far more important to pay the huge social debt in the country. Venezuela has a history of inequality, inheriting a huge gap that separates those who could and those who could not have access to education. 100 R.L. de D’Amico et al. That is why it is so relevant that the government has created programmes/missions to provide education for all, meaning an education of quality and equity. In order to achieve this objective, there is a shared responsibility between the State, Family and Society as the foundation of a participatory and protagonist democracy. In this way solidarity and equity are attainable with the purpose to achieve social balance, promoting a state of justice and giving a social context to this democracy in the context of humanism. Bolivarian education is the centre of the trilogy State–Society–Territory that should promote cultural and institutional change in order to consolidate the model of endogenous development through social production, correcting imbalances and inequalities and creating a sustainable environmental society. The previous plans of the nation (before 1999) did not achieve the benefits for most of the citizens because there was a high percentage of illiteracy, exclusion from school and poor pre-school education. The Bolivarian education was intended, and it is already happening, to solve the educational social debt problem through the different missions now in place. This is changing the existing society and is creating a more balanced development of the citizens. Before it was hard to speak about or understand the concept of sustainable society or environmental education, nowadays it is changing and there are more discussions and programmes in place with strong support in legal documents and policies, but it takes a while for people to be empowered and to change the way they used to consider or refer to the environment. The environment is not theirs; it is ours and is the only place we have in which to live. Under the Constitution of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, approved in 1999 by the majority of the people, the PEN-based project developed by the teachers and the Plan of Economic and Social Development of the Nation 2001–2007 gave direction to the strategic work plan which includes restructuring the SEO and the school as a community centre (Community Schools have these dimensions: economic, cultural, community, educational, social and political). It guarantees free, compulsory and quality education (for the first time children and young people do not pay for their registration at public schools). Similarly, management teams have been set up to change the old centralised management structure. It is proposed that all decisions should be made after being analysed, reflected on and evaluated by the respective responsible team, what is called horizontal management, also described as participatory democracy. Venezuela introduced a new model of governance and a new model of teacher status which is the fundamental commitment to social transformation from the state apparatus called education. The nation has experienced strong, complex, violent and difficult historical moments but the greatest challenge is to change state structures to facilitate social transformation and the welfare of all Venezuelans. This means a rebirth of the Republic, i.e., a revolutionary process that requires all citizens to review their conceptions and actions in the framework of the constitutional principles. It has been difficult, but while keeping to the principles of solidarity, respect, brotherhood, love, cooperation and transparency, some mistakes have been made, but these have been recognised and problems are being overcome. In the last 10 years, important progress in education has been made, such as: the privatisation scheme was abandoned and the public nature of education re-established; 6 Venezuela and Education Transformation for the Development of the People 101 the fight towards exclusion and the promotion of inclusion of all; investment is increasing to meet the construction and repair of school buildings; increased attention is being given to early childhood education; greater access to technology; over a million new literates; improvement of special education programmes and technical schools; priority attention to intercultural, bilingual education; and the extension of higher education by creating university campuses of already established universities in various municipalities to allow students to study in their own places and to avoid the migration to the central states of the country in order to study. In addition there has been significant progress in the use of technology, school enrolment growth, and increased incorporation of adult education through educational missions. Finally the long awaited Organic Law of Education under the guidance of the Bolivarian Constitution has approved the importance of environmental education and sustainable development. However, there are many more things to be achieved and there is a need to protect and nourish what has been achieved because, as Gramsci’s (Biondi 1977) famous phase indicates, “…the old model has not completely finished dying and the new one has not been completely born yet”. References Asamblea Nacional Constituyente. 2006. Constitución de la República Bolivariana de Venezuela. Caracas: Ministerio de Comunicación e Información. Biondi, M. 1977. Guide Bibliografica a Gramsci. Cesena: Librería Adamo Bettini. Castro, G. 1999. El Asalto del Plural. Caracas: Faces UCV. Tropykos. Embassy of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela to the UK and Ireland. 2009. Venezuela’s New Education Law: Myth and Reality. Available at http://www.venezlon.co.uk/pdf/ fs_Ley_educacion.pdf. Accessed 1 May 2009. Figueroa, L B P. 1959. El Humanismos Democrático de la Educación. IESALC-UNESCO. Caracas: Fondo Editorial IPASME. Figueroa, L B P. 2002. El Magisterio Americano de Bolívar. Caracas: Universidad Pedagógica Experimental Libertador. Fuenmayor, L, and Y Vidal. 2000. La admisión estudiantil a las universidades públicas venezolanas: aparición de iniquidades. Pedagogía XXI(62): 273–291. Fundación Casa de Bello. 1992. Simón Rodríguez. Caracas: Ediciones Casa de Bello. López de D’Amico, R, and A González. 2006. Venezuela: A permanent question to education. In Education reform in societies in transition, ed. J Earnest and D Treagust. Rotterdam: Sense Publishers. Loreto, M. 2004. Registro histórico de la educación en Aragua, 1999–2003 (Resumen). Unpublished document. Maracay: Zona Educativa del Estado Aragua. Ministerio de Educación Superior (MES). 2002. Universidad Bolivariana de Venezuela. Curso básico. Educación Superior para el Desarrollo Endógeno. Misión Sucre. Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deportes. 1999. Organic Law of Education [LOE]. Caracas: Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deportes. Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deportes (MECD). 2002a. Constitución de la República Bolivariana de Venezuela. Caracas: Ministerio de Comunicación e Información. Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deportes (MECD). 2002b. Orientaciones Para el Proceso de Discusión Curricular. Años Escolar 2002–2003. Caracas: Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deportes. 102 R.L. de D’Amico et al. PDESN. 2001. Líneas Generales del Plan de Desarrollo Económico y Social de la Nación 2001–2007. Caracas: Ministerio del Poder Popular de Planificación y Finanzas. República Bolivariana de Venezuela. 2004a. La Educación Bolivariana. Políticas, Programas y Acciones. “Cumpliendo las metas del milenio”. Caracas: Ministerio de Educación y Deportes. República Bolivariana de Venezuela. 2004b. La Educación Bolivariana. Políticas, Programas y Acciones. Caracas: Ministerio de Educación y Deportes. Rojas, A. 2005. La Educación Bolivariana. Caracas: Ministerio de Comunicación e Información. Rumazo, G A. 2008. Simón Rodríguez. Maestro de América. Caracas: Biblioteca Ayacucho. UNESCO. 2001a. Declaración de Cochabamba y Recomendaciones Sobre Políticas Educativas al Inicio del Siglo XXI. Cochabamba: UNESCO. UNESCO. 2001b. Educación para Todos en las Américas. Marco de Acción Regional. Dominican Republic: UNESCO.