Venezuela Opposition Objects Education Law
Caracas - One day before the new
school year begins, the Venezuelan
authorities are currently alert, faced with
possible actions by opposition sectors that
are upset with a new Education Law to hinder
the beginning of school activities.
The opposition's reticence contrasts with
the people's approval and that of Venezuelan
United socialist Party (PSUV) members, who
are considering the legislation as a
guarantee to the poorest social groups'
education.
The patrols (PSUV rank-and-file
organizations) are cooperating with the
educational authorities in preparing the
classrooms for the new school year that
begins on Wednesday, with more than seven
million students, only in elementary levels.
The law guarantees retirement, with a
pension of one hundred percent of the salary
to teachers and professors, banned payments
for registration in public schools, and made
the vote of university students and
professors equal.
The legislation ratified the lay nature of
education, in line with the trend in the
world and without prohibiting religious
education, which must be practiced out of
the curriculum and would not determine if
the students go into the following level.
The authorities said it is about giving
human beings the option to decide if they
profess a religious belief or not and which
to choose, and alerted about the Catholic
hierarchs' mistake of identifying religion
with Catholicism.
That position was criticized by religious
figures, as Presbyterian reverend Valmore
Amaris, who accused the Catholic upper
echelons of manipulation, after they called
lay education an attack against God.
Gamaliel Lugo, president of the Venezuelan
Evangelic Pentecost Unity, said the law "put
things in the right place, because parents
can not leave the children's religious
formation to schools. The place to educate
in the faith is the family."
Speaking about the controversy, President
Hugo Chavez asserted that "education should
be used to free those children and not to
form slaves, who end up worshiping their
masters," referring to an e-mail attributed
to Caracas' Cardinal Jorge Urosa.
In that text, Urosa supposedly defended an
education that gives privileges the children
of rich classes, to the detriment of the
poor children, agreeing with the private
education approach that the Catholic Church
traditionally applies.
"That is why, the Venezuelan bourgeoisie is
afraid (of the law), because it wants an
education model that favors its domination,"
Chavez said. |
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