BRV PREPARING NEW SOCIALIST CURRICULUM: DETAILS TBD

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 CARACAS 001947

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

HQSOUTHCOM ALSO FOR POLAD
DEPARTMENT FOR AID/OTI (RPORTER)

E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/01/2017
TAGS: PGOV SOCI PHUM ELAB VE
SUBJECT: BRV PREPARING NEW SOCIALIST CURRICULUM: DETAILS TBD

REF: CARACAS 000906

CARACAS 00001947 001.2 OF 002


Classified By: POLITICAL COUNSELOR ROBERT DOWNES,
REASON 1.4 (D)


1. (C) Summary. The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela (BRV)
recently released for selective comment a new 500-page
curriculum designed to reinforce President Chavez'
ill-defined "Socialism in the XXI Century." The BRV is
planning to make new government textbooks available in
December and implement the new curriculum beginning in the
2007-2008 school year. Education Minister Adan Chavez
maintains the new curriculum will teach Venezuelan students
to think more critically. The opposition believes the values
and social science components of the curriculum will
constitute socialist indoctrination. Although teachers
unions, education associations, and the Catholic Church are
all publicly expressing concerns about the BRV's proposal,
the overall reaction of Venezuelan parents has been
surprisingly muted. There may be greater reaction when the
BRV's abstract education reform ideas are actually put in
practice. End Summary.

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The New Bolivarian Education
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2. (SBU) Adan Chavez, Education Minister and brother of the
Venezuelan president, is leading efforts to revise the
Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela's (BRV's) K-12 curriculum
(Ref A). The Education Ministry circulated a 500-page
curriculum for comment among BRV-selected educators. The
proposal is largely theoretical and is not accompanied by
concrete examples of classroom materials. The Education
Ministry is also preparing a series of new textbooks that it
plans to make available free to schools starting in December.
President Hugo Chavez is calling the 2007-2008 school year
the "year of consolidation of the Bolivarian Education
System" when the curriculum will be tested selectively. The
BRV intends to implement this new curriculum across the board
starting with the 2008-2009 school year. During his
September 30 "Alo, Presidente" broadcast, President Chavez
threatened to take over private schools and imprison school
directors who refuse to adopt the new curriculum.


3. (SBU) During a nationally-broadcast September 17 morning
visit to a new elementary school in Anzoategui State,
President Chavez reviewed the "four pillars" of the new
system: to create, to participate and coexist, to value, and
to reflect. The Venezuelan stressed that the new curriculum
would transform "a set of capitalist values" into "values
centered on the human being." He said the new curriculum
would promote solidarity, respect, equality, honesty, love,
and loyalty (and eschew selfishness and individualism).
Lambasting at length his childhood history books' treatment
of the colonial era, Chavez also stressed that the new
curriculum would transcend "Euro-centrism."


4. (SBU) Chavez also explained the four axes of the new
curriculum: the environment and integrated health, values,
communication and information technologies, and "liberating"
work. Chavez said schools should be much more open to their
surrounding communities and serve as models of organization.
The new curriculum will also reportedly create formal links
between schools and BRV social missions. Chavez said schools
will impart the value of work, and secondary schools will be
expected to organize community anti-poverty projects. He
also cautioned that "English is not the only necessary
(foreign) language."


5. (SBU) The BRV started training public school teachers in
the new curriculum during the summer of 2007. These sessions
are largely ideology-imparting sessions similar to the BRV's
ongoing "Morality and Enlightenment" public education
campaigns. They reportedly focus on the writings of
Venezuelan founder Simon Bolivar, Bolivar's tutor and
Minister of Education Simon Rodriguez, and mid-19th century
land reforming military leader Ezequiel Zamora. The
opposition-oriented Confederation of Venezuelan Workers (CTV)
complains that teachers are required to attend the training
session outside normal working hours without compensation.

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Muted Civil Society Reaction
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6. (C) Public reaction to the BRV's education reform plans

CARACAS 00001947 002.2 OF 002


has so far been surprisingly tame. Octavio De Lamo,
President of the Private Education Chamber, told Polcouns
September 21 that his organization has set up phone trees at
private schools that mobilize parents whenever Education
Ministry officials pay inspection visits at private schools.
De Lamo noted that BRV officials are far less inclined to
conduct intrusive inspections when confronted by groups of
parents. De Lamo said he is reluctant to be too critical of
the proposed reform because he fears the BRV may be putting
out some misinformation to bait its opponents. He also said
many private school administrators are still in denial,
hoping that many of the proposed changes will never be
implemented.


7. (C) Yanet Fermin, leader of one of the teachers unions in
Nueva Esparta state, told poloff that a "culture of
conformism" prevails among public school teachers. She noted
that the BRV has flouted existing regulations to designate a
significant number of Chavez loyalists as "interim" school
directors. According to Fermin and opposition activists,
these directors act as political commissars: teachers must
either go along or risk losing their jobs. In addition, the
Ministry of Education has provided early retirement to many
experienced teachers eager to leave the politicized
educational system and is preparing many new teachers at
parallel Bolivarian teacher training colleges.


8. (SBU) The educational NGO Education Assembly, which a few
years ago helped organize street demonstrations against
earlier proposed school reforms, is giving the new curriculum
mixed reviews. Education Assembly President Olga Ramos
believes the proposed curriculum distorts Venezuelan history
by exalting Simon Bolivar and Chavez' "Bolivarian Revolution"
and gives scant attention to the consolidation of democracy
after 1958. Ramos also criticizes the reform for introducing
militarism into the schools by stressing the need for young
people to prepare to defend Venezuela against "external and
internal" enemies. At the same time, Ramos praises that the
proposed curriculum for what she believes is a long overdue
reform of the middle school curriculum and renewed emphasis
on interdisciplinary learning.


9. (C) The reaction of Catholic Church officials to the new
curriculum has been guarded. Caracas Auxiliary Bishop
Nicolas Bermudez recently told the media that the Church does
not object to exposing students to political theories such as
Marxism-Leninism, but does object to indoctrinating students.
Other bishops, however, continue to be outspoken in their
criticism of BRV education reform. While the new curriculum
does not mention religious instruction, Bishop Bermudez said
the current Education Law and the Constitution provide
juridical protection of the Church's role in public and
private education. Private Education Chamber President De
Lamo said the Church is likely to let his organization take
the lead in criticizing the new curriculum so as not to
jeopardize existing state subsidies for Catholic schools and
teachers. State education subsidies to the Church have
declined in recent years.

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Comment
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10. (C) BRV officials are moving slowly on education reform
largely because they anticipated widespread parental
objections to what would be perceived as government attempts
to indoctrinate students. The surprisingly muted civil
society reaction to the slow roll-out of a new curriculum may
be due to the fact that the proposed new curriculum has not
been implemented in schools as yet. For most Venezuelans, it
remains abstract. Moreover, Chavez' proposal to make
sweeping changes to the 1999 Constitution is grabbing far
more media attention. Parents may pay more attention once
they perceive concrete changes in their children's' schools.
The BRV release of new textbooks in December, for example,
may elicit a stronger public reaction, depending on content.
Previous BRV education reform proposals prompted street
protests only a few years ago and forced the BRV to back off
enacting new education legislation. Education associations
make no claim to such street power now.

DUDDY