petroleumworld

One of the first “successes” that Chávez’s Government heralded before everyone, and that international public opinion enthusiastically applauded, was the campaign to eradicate illiteracy in Venezuela. In October 2005, the Government celebrated by saying that Unesco had declared Venezuela “a Nation Free of Illiteracy.” Today, it’s more and more evident that these achievements aren’t true and that they constitute just another charade perpetrated by the Bolivarian Government.

Since the beginning, the Robinson Mission, the one responsible for implementing Chávez’s literacy plan, was more talk than action. In the first place, the Unesco never declared Venezuela “Free of Illiteracy,” they only approved of the Government’s literacy program. Furthermore, there’s nothing new about the Government’s literacy program or the Robinson Mission. It’s just a new version of the Acude Program that was so successful implemented in the 90s, and raised Venezuela’s literacy level to one of the highest on the continent.

What’s more, Venezuelans need only look around and take stock of their everyday lives to realize how false the claim that illiteracy has been eradicated is.

A few days ago, Luis Pedro España, a researcher at the Universidad Católica Andrés Bello, commented that the highest levels of illiteracy existed among our senor citizens. España continued to say that, the natural aging of the population and the passing of time is lowering the illiteracy level, not because people are learning to read but because those that are illiterate are dying.

Another jab regarding the Robinson Mission myth came from the economist, Francisco Rodríguez, in an interview with Milagros Socorro for the newspaper El Nacional, concerning the results published in “¿Libre de analfabetismo? Una mirada cercana a la campaña de alfabetización Robinson de Venezuela” (“Free of illiteracy? A closer look at the Robinson Literacy campaign in Venezuela), which was carried out by an academic research team from the University of Berkeley and Maryland, from the US.
This research project, based on the official numbers provided by the National Statistics Institute taken from Home Surveys reveals that in Venezuela, for the second quarter of 2005, there were 1,016,000 illiterate people. This means that the number of illiterate people went down by only 92,000 in a year and a half, and not the more than a million people that the Government preaches. What’s more, of these 92,000 people which are now not illiterate, for many of them it is due to the population’s natural aging process previously mentioned here by Luis Pedro España.

Furthermore, according to Rodríguez, not only is it a lie that illiteracy has been eradicated, but the Program’s cost is not reasonable: US$543 per person (not including school supplies like books, VHS, tapes, family libraries, and glasses), which makes it one of the most expensive literacy programs in the world, after Bolivia’s program which costs US$199 per person. Another curious fact is that the program had more literacy teachers (210,000 according the Ministry of Education) than people who actually became literate through the program (92,000 according to the National Statistics Institute).

So, just like with PDVSA’s production, the cost of living, and the Governments social programs, they’re all show and no substance.

VenEconomy is a Venezuela's leading specialized publisher in the economic and financial area. VenEconomy's Points of View on the issues of the day, as seen by VenEconomy during the last week. Petroleumworld not necessarily share these views.

Editor's Note: This commentary was originally published by VenEconomy, on 10/16/2006. Petroleumworld reprint this article in the interest of our readers.

Fair use Notice: This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of issues of environmental and humanitarian significance. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml.

All works published by Petroleumworld are in accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. Petroleumworld has no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of this article nor is Petroleumworld endorsed or sponsored by the originator. Petroleumworld encourages persons to reproduce, reprint, or broadcast

Petroleumworld articles provided that any such reproduction identify the original source, http://www.petroleumworld.com or else and it is done within the fair use as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

Internet web links to http://www.petroleumworld.com are appreciated.

Petroleumworld 10/17/06

Send this story to a friend

Your feedback is important to us!
We invite all our readers to share with us
their views and comments about this article.

Write to editor@petroleumworld.com

Any question or suggestions, please write to:
editor@petroleumworld.com

Best Viewed with IE 5.01+
Windows NT 4.0, '95, '98 and ME +/ 800x600 pixels