Venezuelan archbishop warns schools will be used to impose Communist ideology

Caracas, Venezuela, Sep 2, 2009 / 16:16 pm

The vice president of the Bishops’ Conference of Venezuela, Archbishop Roberto Luckert, warned this week that under the new law on education passed by the Chavez government, “just as occurs in the Cuban educational system, here schools will be used as instruments for imposing Communist ideology.”

The archbishop also warned that all students regardless of grade will be taught “according to the political agenda the government has copied from Cuba and which tramples the Constitution.”

He went on to explain that the controversial law was passed in the “cover of night” and without any consultation with teachers, school administrators and institutions that work in education, such as the Church.

The rector of Andres Bello Catholic University, Father Luis Ugalde, said the new law is a complete replication of the educational system used by the Communist government in Cuba.

Article 5 of the new law allows the Venezuelan state to have unlimited powers of intervention and control over private schools. It will also have the authority to determine the “suitability” of teachers, school administrators and other officials who work at private schools.

The bishops of Venezuela have strongly criticized the new law, saying parents have the right to educate their children according to their own convictions and that children have the right to receive religious education, which the government has now “expelled” from the classroom.