Although we must wait for the publication of the Student Participation Law in the Official Gazette to know the final text, the project that had been disseminated did not consider the replacement of teachers by “bad students.” Fenasopadres, an independent civil society organization, warned about the new law, but for violating “the right to free association and participation of secondary education students”
Text: Alexis Correa
TRUE: Teaching in the public education system in Venezuela is in 2023 an extremely underpaid and threatened profession, which forces many teachers to look for parallel jobs (Prodavinci report). TRUE: there are worrisome threats from official spokesmen (recent statements by national representative Pedro Carreño in Trujillo) and complaints from two independent civil associations (Fenasopadres and the Teachers’ Coalition of Trujillo) in the sense of “attempts” or threats to replace professional teachers with partisan militants.
Misleading: affirm in anonymous messages sent by WhatsApp that the recently approved Law of Student Participation in the Basic Education Subsystem (National Assembly supported by Nicolás Maduro, act of February 7, 2023) tries to put “bad students” to teach instead of teachers.
Each alleged threat against the Venezuelan educational system—the one we have known in a democracy—must be analyzed separately.
On February 9, 2023, we detected an anonymous message in WhatsApp groups that read verbatim (the massive use of capital letters is usually a sign of suspicion in this type of information):
Open the TWEET. . The student participation law to teach classes in BASIC EDUCATION has just been UNANIMOUSLY APPROVED. .UNANIMOUSLY. ALL THE DEPUTIES. OF THE REGIME, THE “Scorpion Opposition” PLUS THE JALABOLAS. THEY VOTED FOR ITS APPROVAL. THE TEACHING CAREER IS OVER. ALL THOSE BAD STUDENTS WHO WRITE ASS WITH K. AND BY THE WAY SAY HAIGA WILL GIVE CLASSES. ….THE VIRGIN MARY. FROM NOW ON THE HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATES WILL BE CALLED BACHIBURROS. AND ALL THOSE MADURIST CHAVISTAS HAPPY BECAUSE THEIR CHILDREN WILL BE WELL DEFORMED FOR THE REVOLUTION
This is the alleged tweet (from the informative account Reporte Ya) to which the anonymous text alludes:
In the first place, as unusual as it may seem, through the official channels of the pro-government National Assembly, for February 9, 2023, we still do not know the final text approved unanimously. Its publication in the Official Gazette must be awaited.
But we do know about the project that was approved in the first discussion in March 2022, and was presumably then submitted to “public discussion.” In the document (available at this link) the replacement of teachers by students (good or bad) is not raised anywhere.
That is not what the law is about, at least not on paper, as the anonymous WhatsApp message and the Reporte Ya tweet suggest. But of the forms of organization of the students of secondary education.
*Read also: Educators from Guyana will teach interday classes to stay on the streets
In fact, a civil society organization independent of the ruling party, the aforementioned Fenasopadres (National Federation of Parents and Representatives Societies), issued a new statement after the enactment of the Student Participation Law. But none of his alerts refer to the “replacement” in the classroom of professional teachers by students.
Let’s take some extracts from the Fenasopadres statement:
«The National Federation of Parent and Representative Societies (FENASOPADRES) denounces the repeated violation of the Right to Free Association and Participation of Secondary Education students with the approval by the National Assembly of the so-called Law of Student Participation in the Education Subsystem Basic».
“Since the Explanation of Motives, (the Law) falsifies the history of the student, middle and university movement”
“It openly violates the Right to Free Association and Participation by establishing as a right a form of organization —student councils— above any form of organization of the student movement, forcing high school students to align themselves around organizations promoted by the government. national with a clear inclination to the government party, in contempt of the democratic pluralism guaranteed by article 2 of our Constitution. The right to participate is a human right, and as a right, it is freely exercised»
“Because of their minority, the secondary education student does not have the power to create or register legal entities. The legal representative of the student is his father, mother or guardian who exercises parental authority, so no third party has jurisdiction to represent the minor student.
«This Law has as its central objective the political and social control of the secondary education student body and indirectly of the Venezuelan family, for which we urge students, parents and representatives to reject this unconstitutional norm»
Result for students
It is misleading to say that the Student Participation Law means the end of teaching careers or the replacement of teachers by “bad students” who cannot write. It is not the objective of this legal instrument.
Nowhere in the known project is that mentioned. According to an independent civil organization (Fenasopadres), the Law —whose final text is still unknown— represents a threat to the education system and to the rights of students, but for other reasons.
The Fenasopadres statement on the Student Participation Law (February 8, 2023) should not be confused with a previous one issued on January 30, 2023, which warned about the intention to replace teachers with partisan militants. Everything in its place: to denounce something, it is advisable to study it beforehand.
Post Views: 19
