EDUCATION IN NUMBERS

Amongst the principal achievements of the Bolivarian government of Venezuela is the expansion of educational opportunities and resources for the majority of the Venezuelan people. Beyond increasing access to existing basic and higher-level education, Venezuela has instituted educational programs aimed at sectors of the population who have been left out of the formal system of education. These programs, known as “missions,” have served millions of Venezuelans, allowing them to gain basic literacy, complete basic or higher education, and enter the workforce.

The Venezuelan government allocates 7% of the GDP to education, while in 1998 the contribution was barely 3.9%. Without including the socialist missions that target those left outside of the formal system of basic and higher education, enrollment in 1998 stood at 6.2 million and has now increased to 7.5 million in both public and private institutions.

The success of the socialist missions are reflected in the statistics up to the year 2008:

• Mission Robinson II (Basic elementary education): 437,171 graduates, among them 81,000 indigenous people.
• Mission Ribas (High school education): 510,585 high school graduates.
• Mission Sucre (College and graduate-level education): 571,917 Venezuelans studying in 24 programs in 334 municipalities. 30,000 graduates in 7 programs: education, environmental management, social management of local development, social communication, administration, computer science, agricultural production. Additionally, 15,893 citizens graduated with degrees in education.

Enrollment in higher education in Venezuela has exploded since 1998, increasing from less than 700,000 to over two million — a 338% increase. The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela has the second-highest rate of higher education enrollment in Latin America, at 83%. Cuba has the highest rate with 88% enrollment, according the UNESCO Institute of Statistics. These numbers rival those of developed countries like Finland (92 percent) and Greece (90%.) The average rate of enrollment for the region stands at 29.6%.

The Bolivarian government has also created 2,127 computer centers throughout the country and founded 515 rural universities.  As of 2009, 108,708 new students were pre-enrolled in various higher education programs.

To learn more about the efforts of the government in education, please see “The Bolivarian Revolution in Higher Education” (Spanish).

For more information on education policies implemented by the government, please visit the website of the Ministry of People’s Power for Education (Spanish).