Educational experiences in Venezuela can be very diverse.

The most successful learning

experiences can be found in private institutions. This is a product of having parents who are

committed to the student’s education and tend to their needs, well-trained and paid teachers

picked from the best universities as well as schools that are constantly reinventing their

approaches towards teaching and revising their curriculum to match global standards in a very

competitive educational scene. Small class sizes, access to technology, and proper infrastructure

are key aspects that allow the students to strive in these schools. Loosely following are the

subsidized private institutions where the State or private companies aid the school and the

parents pay a contribution. These institutions lack the resources to maintain a diverse staff of

teachers which means that teachers are usually teaching over 160 hours per week, class sizes can

be medium yet they do not allow for individual tutelage over the students, resources are scarce

and they are mostly used to maintain the infrastructure and pay salaries which means these

schools have little in the way of technology. Parents tend to be committed to their children’s

growth yet they can struggle with school payments. Finally, we have public education usually

left for those who cannot afford private education, the working conditions for teachers can be

quite dire as payments are reflected in the number of hours the teacher can work, and because the

overall payment is nearly 3 times lower than those working in the private sector, teachers need to

work more hours to meet ends meet. This aspect, coupled with class sizes that exceed 40 students

can make education and even class management incredibly difficult. The State is obligated by

law to provide the necessary requirements for the schools to run, yet this rarely ever happens

which leads to teachers going on strikes and classes being suspended on a regular basis.

Resources tend to go almost exclusively to maintaining the staff which means that the
infrastructure of the school can sometimes be lacking ranging from dim bulbs to crumbling

floors and walls in certain rooms.

We can arrive at a conclusion, that educational experiences in Venezuela are heavily influenced

by economic factors. The following extract was taken from the Survey of Life Conditions

(ENCOVI) “en Venezuela 28% de los escolares no asisten a clases por falta de agua, 22% por

carencia de alimentos en el hogar y 13% por esta misma razón en la escuela.” [In Venezuela,

28% of students do not assist schools due to lack of water, 22% due to lack of food at home, and

13% for this same reason (access to food) at school]. Unicef has stated that “The deteriorating

situation inside Venezuela has so far left an estimated one million children out of school”

(UNICEF, 2019). This reflects only one side of the story, academic, traditional schooling. Non-

traditional options are being born as a consequence for students in their early years in order to

learn how to read and write yet these non-traditional educational settings do not transcend these

basic skills. Fortunately, sex is not considered an impediment that limits access to education,

similarly to racial divides. This does not mean there is no sexism or racism, but these two aspects

have not been an impediment for students to gain access to education. This also reflects on the

indigenous population of the country who suffer due to the same economic restrictions as the rest

of the people in the country.

Clearly, this situation does not fit with the idea of schooling having a sociological function

neither from a functionalist or conflict theory approach. Despite the left-leaning ideals the 22-

year-old current administration possesses, the situation with education seems to be creating an

even broader divide between the people who are able to pay for private institutions vs those who
are not as wealthy, consolidating, even more, the social and economic classes that already exist.

There was, back in early 2000, an educational revolution that had the best of intentions but

generated the current situation that we are in today. From a conflict theory perspective, a new

revolution should occur that sets education in a way that it is equal for all, yet it is unlikely that

the people would wish to attempt a change in the educational status quo for fear of having

another debacle as the previous one. From a functionalist perspective, it regrettably does make

sense. The purpose here would not be to educate the population but to keep the population

dependent upon the State to survive. If education is limited, people have fewer options, and if

education (at least public education) is filled with pro-government propaganda, access to

occasional free food and housing provided by the government, from a functionalist standpoint

people are being socialized to favor the government and avoid changing it as it risks affecting the

status quo of those who are benefiting from the current state of affairs.

If we believe that the function and purpose of school and education is to “help socialize children

and prepare them for their eventual entrance into the larger society as adults” (Sociological

perspectives on education, 2010) then what is happening in Venezuela is a Machiavellian

approach to this concept. Yet, I believe that the true goal of education is to promote the growth

of the student, providing the students and the general population with the required public

services and with the non-intervention of the State in the economy of the country, aimed at

making it bloom once again so that the students can become successful and help their country

grow. We help our students socialize to become true, law-abiding citizens, with a concern for

themselves, their families and their country; this is the function of schools and education, one

that has lost its track under the current political regime in my country.
References

ENCOVI. (2018). Encuesta de Condiciones de Vida [Survey of Life Conditions].

https://assets.website-files.com/5d14c6a5c4ad42a4e794d0f7/5f034777c92bdce763e10c4b_PRES

ENTACIÓN%20ENCOVI%202018.pdf

16.2 Sociological perspectives on education.(2010). In Sociology: understanding and changing

the social world. Libraries Publisihing. http://open.lib.umn.edu/sociology/chapter/16-2-

sociological-perspectives-on-education/ licensed under CC BY-NC-SA.

UNICEF (2019). Venezuela: UNICEF providing more than 300,000 children with education

supplies to help keep them in school. https://www.unicef.org/press-releases/venezuela-unicef-

providing-more-300000-children-education-supplies-help-keep-them