Under Venezuela’s socialist president Hugo Chavez, primary and secondary school education is now available free of charge, and only the rich pay for university study. Since Chavez was first elected president in 1998, household poverty has dropped from about 44% to 28% in 2007 based on income alone. Poverty has been alleviated even more by many new social programs (missions), which provide free literacy and numeracy lessons, housing, cheap food and free medical services. About 4 million poor students are now given free meals at school. Enrolments in the education system have doubled from about six million to 12 million, and in secondary school, net enrolments increased dramatically from about 25% to 69% by 2005, according to United Nations Human Development statistics. Education expenditure has increased from 3.4% of Gross Domestic Product to 4.9%, by 2004 alone.
No comments:
Post a Comment