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Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Chavez Forces Private Schools to Teach Socialism

From Bloomberg September 17

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, after nationalizing the oil and telecommunications industries this year, said private schools that fail to teach a ``socialist'' curriculum will be taken over by the state.

Schools will have until 2010 to implement the new lesson plans, which will include new textbooks that focus more on the country's indigenous history than its European conquest, Chavez said today at a ceremony to inaugurate the school year.

``We can't allow private schools to do whatever they want,'' Chavez said in comments broadcast by state television from the city of El Tigre. ``The state has to intervene. They should be subordinate to the constitution and the national education plan.''

Teachers and academics may see the measure as an attempt to politicize the classroom, speeding up a brain drain that has been underway for years as educated, skilled workers move abroad to escape Chavez's ``Bolivarian'' revolution, said Ercilia Vasquez, director of the school of education at the Universidad Catolica Andres Bello in Caracas.

``This ideology is very strong,'' she said in a phone interview. ``We're going through a process where a lot of people are looking for other alternatives outside the country. This could accelerate it.''

Private schools, which are already subject to price controls, will also be shut down if they are run like for-profit businesses, Chavez said.

The government will finish developing the new curriculum during the current school year, selecting text books that provide a more ``multicultural, pluralistic'' worldview, Chavez said.

Hat Tip Once Upon a Time in the West

7 Comments:

Blogger Sanctuary said...

A revolution can leave no stone unturned in its rooting out of entrenched counter-revolutionary tendencies. Look at Cuba, and compare it's social justice with Guatemala or Honduras. Sometimes, a revolution is just what is needed.

10:42 PM  
Blogger mah29001 said...

Yea, wonderful idea to have the government further exert power over to the population. Let's take control of education. Gee, that doesn't seem to be totalitarian. Not!

5:48 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

So sanctuary, when are you (and Steve) off to Venezula?. Those counter-revolutionaries won't puge themselves you know.

EXOCET

10:21 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Did not our beloved government provide state funding to private/catholic schools if they taught the then state/socialist curriculum? Did not these same schools grab the money on offer faster than MP's pocket their pay?

Dirk.

5:04 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hey Mah

"Yea, wonderful idea to have the government further exert power over to the population. Let's take control of education. Gee, that doesn't seem to be totalitarian. Not!"

I read something the other day that Israeli female soldiers posed sort of seductively to attract tourists to Israel? And it was paid for by the government of Israel. Is that true Mah? You should know eh Mah.

Huhana

PS So when are you going to Israel EXOCET? (I spelt your name right this time, but how come Trev deleted my comment, ask him, he's your mate) What does "puge" mean?

10:07 PM  
Blogger mah29001 said...

This comment has been removed by the author.

1:29 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Sorry bout the typo Huhana, it should be 'purge'.

Israel is on the list of countries I'd like to visit one day,got to pay a chunk off the mortgage first!

EXOCET

9:34 AM  

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