Tens of thousands of students and university-based workers marched in Caracas on Thursday to demand the radical “transformation” of higher education in Venezuela.
By Zuleika Matamores- Aporrea.org, Marlene Yadira Cordova, Feb 8th 2011
There is currently a nationwide debate over the content of the University Law, which Chavez sent back to the National Assembly. The debate includes what universities should be, their role in society, and how to transform the universities into participatory democratic institutions. In this interview, the minister for university education outlines some of her perspectives.
All sectors in the country will debate the University Education Law, which strengthens and guarantees autonomy in universities, affirmed Deputy Dario Vivas, representative of Venezuela’s Unified Socialist Party (PSUV) to the National Assembly.
The new legislative term of 2011-2016 in Venezuela began yesterday, with the National Assembly voting on a new president, revolutionary Fernando Soto Rojas. Also, President Hugo Chavez refused to sign the controversial University Education Law passed by the outgoing assembly last month.
Tens of thousands of Venezuelan students marched through Caracas on Sunday to celebrate the Day of the University Student and to pressure the National Assembly to pass a new law for university-level education.
Venezuela’s Minister of Higher Education, Edgardo Ramírez, called on the authorities in the country’s public autonomous universities to guarantee the safety of the university community after violent incidents occurred in the University of Zulia (LUZ) and the Central University of Venezuela (UCV) on Tuesday.
Youth
and students marched on Tuesday morning from the Bolivarian University of
Venezuela (UBV) to the National Assembly, in order to demand more democratic decision
making in the nation's universities and a transformation of the university
system to make it more equitable.
