Students March for New Type of Education in Venezuela
Mérida, June 18th 2009 (Venezuelanalysis.com) - 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.
The march followed a month of protests by pro-government students and anti-government students regarding university funding and structure.
The UBV is part of the government's social program called the Mission Sucre, which aims to provide free higher education to all those who were previously excluded from it or who need it. The marching students said they want a more equal distribution of university funding between the government universities and autonomous universities like the UCV, which are government-funded but make all their decisions independently of the government.
The students also called for democratic participation in university administration, fairer admission mechanisms, and a nation-wide discussion about the role of education generally, in the country.
Vicente Moronta, a history student at the UCV said that constructing socialism involves new social relations, so students in Venezuela need a "new paradigm of education". He said the marching students want to create a university that "orchestrates a new social order".
Moronta said it is necessary to revise the concept of autonomous universities. "The current university law was made in 1970 with the military incursion that closed down academic life for over three years and that generated a structure that caused the currently reality of the privatized university that excludes the popular sectors," Moronta said.
One banner in the march said, "What are the bourgeoisie complaining about? UCV budget 949,819,000 bolivars [$US 442 million], population 58,000. UBV budget 193,342,000 bolivars [$US 90 million] population 260,305". The banner was referring to a protest on May 20th by opposition students, leaders, and UCV rector Cecilia Garcia, who marched to protest the government's 6% budget cut to higher education. The higher education ministry invited the students to have a debate about education and education spending. Minutes into the debate Garcia called it an "ambush" and walked out.
"It's not right that a student of the UCV costs the country 14,000 bolivars [$US 6,500] per year while one from UBV costs 2,000 bolivars [$US 930]," Moranto said.
Student Natascha Garcia told the rally, "We want there to be more equality in the distribution of the university budget because Mission Sucre... has a smaller budget than the UCV." Law student Oliver Rivas said students want more democracy within the universities.
On Saturday, the student group Movement for University Transformation March 28th along with pro-government students had organized a meeting to call Tuesday's march. Moronta denounced the UCV authorities for cutting electricity to the auditorium where the students were meeting.
Previously, on June 8th fourteen pro-government UCV students began a hunger strike to protest a 16% reduction in the university's cafeteria budget that had been decided by the autonomous university administration. When the national budget cuts were announced, Education Minister Luis Acuna had sent a statement to university administrators saying that salaries and student services such as the cafeteria, housing and transportation should not be cut. Four thousand students at UCV depend on the cafeteria for free meals.
The hunger strike was violently dispersed with tear gas and gun shots by "unknown people", according to press reports. However, two of the students involved in the hunger strike, president of the social work student center Kevin Avila, and president of law student center Jose Casanova, are currently being publicly threatened by some university administrators with expulsion proceedings for alleged violence during the hunger strike. The university council, which is majority opposition, would have to vote on starting the proceedings.
