Introduction
Socialism in Venezuela
What is Socialism? The dying educative system of Venezuela is an example. For everyone who believes “Democratic Socialism” is a good idea for America, you must read this. Our source directly from Venezuela explains the situation.
The name of Venezuela has become well known by all humanity, unfortunately for the wrong reasons. Venezuela today is synonymous with hunger, misery, despair, violence, chaos, and horror. For the first time in recent history, it is seen apparently as “normal”.
A country that became the new Cuba in less than 5 years, without that debacle being due to war or natural disasters.
Socialism has caused the worst migratory wave of refugees in the history of Latin America, comparable with Syria into Europe.
The years of Venezuelan prosperity
Few know that Venezuela once was a rich and powerful country. A country that touched with its fingers, for a brief moment, the ‘First World’ prosperity.
Few know that Venezuela before “Chávez, and Maduro introduced “Socialism” into one of the most advanced and best-educated countries in the continent.
Venezuela had one of the highest HDIs in Latin America. The democratic governments of 1958-1999 worked hard to educate an illiterate country.
The Venezuelan educational system consists of 9 years of basic and compulsory education. 2 years of secondary education and finally, the vast majority of undergraduate careers in public universities last for 5 years.
In private universities, undergraduate careers usually last 4 years. In 1998, the schooling rate reached 64.15%, illiteracy dropped from 40% in 1958 to 7% in 1998. There was a school enrollment of 6,184,835 students (in a country populated by 23 million at that time), and there were 796,350 university students in that year.
130 new universities were born in just 41 years. Venezuela could be proud to be one of the best-educated countries in America, and even today, the Venezuelan diaspora is composed mostly of university graduates.
Venezuelan democracy and free-market removed millions from poverty and gave them the opportunity to become skilled workers.
Socialism destroys Venezuela
Chavez’s governments claim to have fought against ignorance, but actually destroyed all the achievements of previous civil governments. It is true that now gross school enrollment is higher than that of the democratic era.
However, the quality of education received by students is much lower than that of the Old Republic because the teachers of public schools and universities are among the lowest-paid workers from the country.
According to Chávez himself, what mattered was that everyone could enter the university, if they later deserted or left poorly prepared, it was irrelevant. Venezuelan colleges fell dramatically in international rankings compared to 1998.
According to the QS World University Rankings, the best university in the country is the Central University of Venezuela (UCV), ranked 28th in the Latin American ranking, outside the TOP 25, when before Socialism, it appeared in the TOP 10.
As if all this were not bad enough, the Chávez government opted to pay miserable salaries to university professors because, being part of the middle class, they were mostly anti-Chávez.
Currently, a professor who has already completed his doctorate earns 16USD$ per month, the equivalent of two minimum salaries, while in the rest of Latin America, professors earn 3000USD$ per month as a minimum. Venezuelan teachers work for the love of art and depend on other jobs or the remittances of their relatives who have emigrated.
In private colleges, which do not depend on the state budget, it is not very different due to hyperinflation and the collapse of the value of the bolivar. That has made Venezuela one of the poorest countries in the region. Unless you have U.S dollars, of course.
This is reflected in a profound professorial defection. Only in the period 2016-2017, 1400 professors of the prestigious UCV resigned, packed their bags and emigrated from the country.
This in turn is reflected in the students, who are also going hungry and have no choice but to look for work to help their families or emigrate. Only in the Zulia University (LUZ), 15,000 students deserted in the period 2015-2017. LUZ had an enrollment of 60,000 students before the beginning of the economic depression.
LUZ is a public university, but the high costs of private universities have also boosted their own dropout rates.
According to the latest Survey on Living Conditions (ENCOVI 2017), conducted by three colleges in Caracas, at least 39% of the 7,330,000 Venezuelan students attend classes irregularly due to hunger, power failures, and failures in the water service.
Drop-out rates increased by 8% since 2014 alone.
In a country where 48% of households are poor and most eat less than three times a day, it is important that public schools can provide a meal for their students to be able to learn.
Lack of Food at school, and school
Since the times of the Old Republic, there is the School Food Program (PAE), which was responsible for providing breakfast and lunch to high school students.
Theoretically, the PAE still exists, but the corruption and fiscal deficit led to the fact that children do not have access to any lunch, or in their defense, they can only eat an insufficient dish, without chicken or meat or any animal protein.
In public universities, the free cafeterias available for students suffer from the same problems. Even suffered periods of closure for several months due to infrastructure problems, lack of food, and labor conflicts. The economic situation of high school teachers is even worse.
Many times, they do not have money to pay for public transport to go to school and return. According to the Venezuelan Federation of Teachers (FVM), only 25-30% of the 350,000 teachers registered in the Ministry of Education are teaching right now.
Private schools are not excluded, because due to hyperinflation and maxi-devaluation, many middle-class families have left private schools to enroll their children in a public school.
As a result, private schools have less money to pay a good salary for their teachers. This only fuels, even more, the escape of teachers as refugees. In summary, the current state of Venezuela today, only causes despair, depression, and deep pain.
To see how one of the countries with the largest oil reserves, has become the laughing stock of the continent. The best example of how Socialism and too much government will destroy a once-thriving economy, and educational system.
As a Venezuelan, I can only say one thing: God, please help us!
