Hector Navarro, a former Minister of People´s Power for Education, said  on Wednesday that due to the academic successes achieved by the government’s educational policies, Venezuela has come closer to achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

“This was certified during the recent visit of President of the General Assembly of the Organization of the United Nations (UN), Ali Treki. The UN has ranked countries according to how close they are to achieving the millennium goals. Venezuela went from being a country that had half a chance of reaching the MDGs to a country that is about to achieve them, “said Navarro during a television interview.

“The whole world recognizes that Venezuela defeated the scourge of illiteracy,” said the former minister.

Navarro argued that school success is evident because, as of 2008, 84 percent of Venezuelan children completed their primary education.

The former minister recalled that when Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez took office in 1999 the dropout figures were around 10 percent.

AVN, Press and Communications Office of the Embassy of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela to the United States, July 1, 2010.