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Date: Thu, 24 Jun 2004 12:01:14 -0700 (PDT)
From: Venezuela News & Action <newsandaction@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Reply-To: Venezuela News & Action
<reply.1959.4199606.5469652713158424189-naiman_veninfo.org@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <naiman@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Venezuela News & Action June 24, 2004
Dear Friends,
This July marks the first anniversary of Venezuela's educational missions.
The achievements in the first year have been extraordinary: a volunteer
force of 100,000 has established hundreds of clinics in remote regions and
inner cities. In all, more than 1.2 million adults have been taught to
read in the past year alone, and Venezuela is on track to eliminating
illiteracy altogether.
ACTION ITEM: Educators across North America are invited to celebrate this
success with the people of Venezuela. Here's how you can help:
* If you are a teacher, professor, faculty member, or other education
professional, please sign on to the following letter by sending your NAME,
TITLE, SCHOOL, CITY, and STATE to educators@xxxxxxxxxxx
* Circulate this letter widely among education professionals
* Signers should respond by MONDAY, JULY 5th. More information on the
missions is posted immediately under the sign-on letter.
**********************************************
SIGN ON LETTER
Aristobulo Isturiz, Minister of Education
Edificio Sede
Caracas 1010
Venezuela
Dear Dr. Isturiz:
As educators across North America, we recognize the achievements of the
literacy programs in Venezuela, and join with you to celebrate the
remarkable accomplishments of their first year.
The level of participation in these missions has been significant: one
million people have already graduated from Mission Robinson's basic
reading and writing clinics, one million more adults are working to obtain
high-school diplomas through Mission Ribas, and an additional one
hundred-thousand students participate in Mission Sucre's higher education
program. More than 1.2 million adults have been taught to read in the past
year alone, with the support of tens of thousands of volunteers.
Bringing education to the most remote regions of the country is critical
to national development. Economic advancement, civic involvement,
technological advances, political stability and participation in the world
require that literacy is extended to all. We hope that the tremendous
progress Venezuela has made toward the elimination of illiteracy will
inspire others in the region.
On the first anniversary of the educational programs, we congratulate the
people of Venezuela for your remarkable achievement.
Sincerely,
HUNDREDS OF NORTH AMERICAN TEACHERS PROFESSORS AND EDUCATIONAL PROFESSIONALS
**********************************************
Background Information:
-VENEZUELA'S LITERACY TRIUMPH-
Venezuela has a history of discrimination in education. New social
programs are eradicating past discrimination by providing equal access to
educational opportunities even for the poorest and most isolated
citizens. With more than 1.2 million adults taught to read in the last
year, Venezuela is creating the conditions that will allow all citizens to
participate in the democratic process for the first time.
ILLITERACY & EDUCATIONAL DISCRIMINATION
Last summer, the Venezuelan government launched a series of sweeping
educational initiatives to combat the learning gap that had historically
plagued the nation's poor. Establishing thousands of local,
volunteer-based schools in rural communities and urban slums across the
Caribbean nation, the initiatives have made remarkable progress.
This July, Venezuela and educators from around the world will celebrate
the 1.2 million adults who have been taught to read in the first year of
these programs. The country is now on track to achieve a near-complete
elimination of illiteracy.
THE EDUCATION GAP
Just ten years ago, Venezuela's illiteracy rate was nearly 9%, or about 2
million people, primarily in rural Indigenous communities and poor
inner-city families. Under previous governments, students had been
required to pay fees to attend public schools, which in practice excluded
the most needy from receiving basic education. The most remote parts of
the country had no schools at all, and government spending on public
schools declined steadily throughout the 1990s. Although the country
enjoyed immense oil wealth, the government in alliance with the
elites made little effort to eradicate this plague of illiteracy and
educational discrimination.
VENEZUELANS VOTE FOR CHANGE
By 1998, Venezuelans had grown tired of their government ignoring their
basic needs. They turned to the ballot box and elected Hugo Chavez Frías,
a leader with a mandate to increase opportunities for the country's poor,
focusing on education, health care and land reform. The government quickly
eliminated fees for public schools. They codified the right to education
into a brand new Constitution, which was approved in by over 87% of the
electorate. Under the new Constitution, Hugo Chavez was again elected to
the Presidency with almost 60% of the popular vote -- a huge vote of
confidence for the new Constitution and the social programs addressing the
needs of the country's majority poor population
SCHOOL BOOM UNDER THE CHAVEZ ADMINISTRATION
To meet the demand for primary education, Venezuelan leaders deployed the
military to an ambitious school construction project in 2000. Within four
years, more than 3000 new schools had been built. School attendance at
all levels had jumped 25% by 2002, representing approximately 1.3 million
students who had previously been left out of the system. During a 2001
visit to Venezuela, The Director General of the United Nations Education
Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Koichiro Matsuura, lauded
Venezuela's education initiatives as well as its increase in education
spending to 6 percent of GDP--far above the 3.9 percent average in
developing countries.
Still, geographic and economic barriers remained, particularly in regions
where traditional school districts were not feasible. The country has
recently found success in a novel series of government-sponsored
"missions" to reach underserved regions. The educational missions are
each named after prominent figures in Venezuelan history, and weave
lessons of history and civic responsibility together with reading and
mathematical skills.
MISSION ROBINSON: LITERACY FOR EVERYONE
Mission Robinson is named after Simon Rodriguez, a private tutor to Latin
American liberator Simon Bolívar who often traveled under the pseudonym
Samuel Robinson. The most significant campaign in Venezuela's battle
against illiteracy, Mission Robinson was established in July 2003.
Today, some 100,000 educated volunteers spend evenings teaching basic
reading, writing and math skills to adults in small night classes around
the country. The key has been to establish night schools in virtually
every corner of the nation, making them accessible to adults with families
and full-time jobs. Venezuela's state universities try to instill a
renewed sense of community responsibility among their students and alumni,
and college students make up the majority of mission volunteers. In its
first year, more than 1 million people have graduated from Mission
Robinson programs. Literacy graduates then have the opportunity to
continue on to earn an elementary school equivalency with two more years
of classes.
MISSION RIBAS: BACK TO HIGH SCHOOL
Adults who have dropped out of high school can obtain a diploma through an
expedited program named after Jose Felix Ribas, a philosophical and
military leader of Venezuelan Independence. Mission Ribas, which teaches
mathematics, geography, advanced grammar, and English as a second
language, may be completed within two years, about half the time of a
standard high school program.
Like all of Venezuela's educational missions, the programs at Ribas are
free, but the government has set aside grants for 100,000 participants to
be compensated for time that could otherwise be spent working.
Graduates of Mission Ribas are offered assistance in job-hunting as
well. About 1.4 million people are currently enrolled in the program.
MISSION SUCRE: ACCESS TO HIGHER EDUCATION
Named after independence hero General Antonio Jose de Sucre, Mission Sucre
acts essentially as a scholarship program for higher
education. Need-based grants are given out to 100,000 Venezuelans each
year to offset the costs of state universities, and will open the doors of
higher education to bright students who would have been financially barred
from universities in the past. They have also founded a brand-new
Bolivarian University of Venezuela, the UBV, in an unused building that
was the former headquarters of the national oil company.
As one sixty-year-old housewife, a participant in Mission Robinson,
remarked, "I feel as though my President has personally called on me to
come to school, because we have a participatory democracy in Venezuela,
and to participate, I should learn to read and write. I have completed
Mission Robinson, and hope to graduate and move through Mission Ribas. And
who knows, maybe someday I'll go to Mission Sucre and get a chance to go
to college."
For more information on literacy in Venezuela, contact the Venezuelan
Information Office newsandaction@xxxxxxxxxxx
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