The Ministry of Education will receive 19.3% more for next year than the 2024 budget amount. The School Feeding Program (PAE) expects to serve 5,169,271 students, but there are still thousands who will be left without receiving food in their homes. schools
The Ministry of Education is the second entity that will obtain the largest amount of money from the Budget Law corresponding to the fiscal year 2025, after the allocation of 92,749 million bolivars. This amount is equivalent to 1,919 million dollars, according to the official exchange rate of the Central Bank of Venezuela (BCV) on December 6 (48.32 Bs/$) and represents 10.23% of the total amount of public spending of 906,459,117,540 bolivars.
SuchWhich obtained exclusively, for the third consecutive year, the details of the income and expenditure report that the Government has not officially published since 2015.
According to the documents, the Ministry of Education will receive 19.3% more for next year than the amount established in the 2024 budget. For 2025, nine projects were formulated, four of which will be executed by the ministerial entity itself and the rest will be in charge of the assigned organizations.
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Although for several consecutive years the demands of the educational sector include improvements for the School Feeding Program (PAE) and, recently, the Minister of Education, Hector Rodriguezpromised to strengthen it to “increase attention to students and teachers and improve the menu for a more balanced diet,” for next year only 763,550 million bolivars will be allocated for this programwhich represents 15,801 million dollars at the BCV rate of last Friday, December 6, which represents only 0.82% of the Ministry’s total budget.
The PAE expects to serve 5,169,271 students; of which, 3,360,026 are girls and 1,809,245 are boys. However, according to data provided by the national government, more than seven million students are enrolled in public schools, which indicates that Not all students in state-run institutions will receive food and some will remain excluded.
For the year 2024, Bs 594,822 million were allocated for student feeding, but approved through the National School Feeding Corporation (CNAE) and not directly by the School Feeding Program.
CNAE is a Venezuelan company that is responsible for producing, processing and supplying food for educational entities. It was created in November 2014 by presidential decree and is attached to the Ministry of Education.
The amount granted for student feeding for 2024 was equivalent to 16,699 million dollars for December 2023 (calculated at the BCV rate on December 12, which was 35.62 Bs/$); However, this budget document did not detail how many people would be served with that amount.
Although the Ministry of Education will receive more money by 2025, it allocates a smaller amount for feeding students, since in the 2024 budget an additional $898,000 was allocated for food.
The Venezuelan Federation of Teachers (FVM) recently denounced in SuchWhich that in the last school year few schools received PAE and demanded that the service be restored “for so many children who do not have anything to eat at home.”
According to The latest figures published by the Living Conditions Survey (Encovi), 10% of school absences in 2023 were due to lack of food at home or at school. While 62% of the students consulted for this study stated that they received the PAE at their institutions.
Resources for other projects
In addition to the School Feeding Program (PAE), the Ministry of Education has eight other projects for 2025. These are:
- Development and Expansion of Professional Technical Education Bs 3,127 million.
- The ecosystem of resources for learning in the development of technological and creative innovation to value the teaching-learning processes in favor of the educational quality of the Basic Education Subsystem: Bs 2,775 million.
- Campaign for the prevention and reduction of early pregnancy within the framework of the National Plan for the Prevention and Reduction of Pregnancy at an Early Age and in Adolescence (PRETA): Bs 9,007 million.
- Ipasme goes to school: Bs 570,310 million.
- Avansalud Ipasme: Bs 570,310 million.
- “Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías” specialized ophthalmological surgical centers: Bs 1,140 million.
- Social Protection for the Student “Maestro Aristóbulo Istúriz”: Bs 17,766 million.
- Construction, expansion, provision and improvement of the infrastructure of the educational spaces of the Basic Education subsystem: Bs 4,166 million.
The largest amount of money from the Ministry of Education is allocated to workers’ expenses: Bs 50,431 million are assigned to this work, which is equivalent to 1,043 million dollars. One of the main demands of teachers to this office is a salary increase, since they have more than a thousand days without a salary increase.
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