State, Market, and Education. Problematizing notes of the current Venezuelan educational context

APUNTES PROBLEMATIZADORES DEL CONTEXTO EDUCATIVO VENEZOLANO ACTUAL

Abstract

The article critically analyzes the socio-political and educational dimensions that contribute to the configuration of the Venezuelan educational market, considering the problematization of these components through the evolution of the educational system, its foundations and regulatory framework, as well as the both endogenous and exogenous aspects that condition the current situation and that serve to explain the observed mutations. The educational doctrine of Venezuela conceives education as a human right and a fundamental social duty for the republican construction. It includes the guarantee of the right to public, free, and quality education, in whose task the state has a central role. The gratuity is contemplated in all public institutions that offer compulsory education in different modalities and levels, up to the university undergraduate degree. These guarantee regulations, maintained for decades and reaffirmed and expanded since the constituent process of 1999, contemplate, in a limited scope, the exercise of private education. The complex and conflictive political situation that has been impacting the Venezuelan reality for more than a decade and its effects on public education has favored the repositioning of the privatization of education by unconventional means, but which in fact have an impact on the most vulnerable social fabric of the country. This work is based on the systematic collection of relevant information, as well as the analysis and documentary critical review, to address the core issues addressed in the writing.