Venezuela New Public Schools Equipped w Laptops, and some stats on education in Venezuela

[Peace Patriot]

Venezuela Builds New Public Schools Equipped with Children's Educational Laptops

By EDWARD ELLIS - CORREO DEL ORINOCO INTERNATIONAL - 10/11/10

(Summary: Chavez personally visited two newly renovated schools and hand-delivered their children's educational laptops. In his remarks, he said that, although Venezuela "occupies one of the highest places in terms of education in Latin America and the world, 'we can’t sit on our laurels. We have to keep improving'”.)

The computers are part of a government program called Canaima, which, according to the Minister of Education, Jennifer Gil, will make 768 thousand units available for free to first and second graders this year to aid in their studies.

(SNIP)

Mission Robinson – a national literacy campaign – has converted Venezuela into one of the leaders in Latin America and the Caribbean in terms of literacy with 95.2% of the population now able to read and write. Mission Ribas has provided secondary education to adults while Mission Sucre offers university level training.

(SNIP)

According to the Education Ministry, scholastic matriculation has increased by nearly 1.5 million and the desertion rate of primary students has fallen from 2.5% to 1.7% over the eleven years of the Chavez administration.

UNESCO has also recently placed Venezuela fifth in the world and second in Latin America in terms of university matriculation at 83%.

(SNIP)

In September, Venezuela and Cuba teamed up to invest US$5 million in a new literacy campaign for as many as 240,000 Haitians. 9,000 literacy training centers will be built in different regions of the earthquake-ravaged nation. Each course will consist of 65 lessons taught over 22 months using Cuba`s largely audio-visual method for literacy training, known as “Wi mwen kapab” (Yes, I can).

http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/5701
source: http://www.correodelorinoco.gob.ve/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/Web-COI32.pdf
(edited to add: my emphases)

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In the U.S., we're laying off tens of the thousands of teachers, in one of the biggest assaults on U.S. education we have ever seen--induced by Bushwhack deregulation, the banksters, the mortgage profiteers and the war profiteers. In Venezuela, the government is lavishing resources on education. This is also occurring in countries with leftist governments elsewhere in Latin America. Education is the "watchword" of the leftist democracy movement that has swept the region. Considering these priorities, it is interesting to ask, "Whose 'century' is it really going to be?"--those who wrote "The Project for a New American Century," and meant only the U.S., and didn't mean its citizens, or those who have virtually all the resources in the western hemisphere--the oil, the gas, the lithium and other minerals, the forests, the water and the farm land--and who are determined to benefit all of their citizens?

[Billy Burnett]

1. This is horrible news, P.P. What a waste that these failures proceed to bring down their nations.

:sarcasm:


Viva Cuba!
Viva Venezuela!