[NYTr] Venezuela Promotes Access to Higher Education

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

Agencia Cubana de Noticias (ACN)
http://ainch.ain.cu/mailman/listinfo/ingles


Venezuela Promotes Access to Higher Education

Havana, Oct 29 (acn) Two years after becoming the second country in 
Latin America to declare itself illiteracy free, Venezuela has taken a 
step forward in its fight against university quotas by guaranteeing 
spaces to more than 363,000 high school graduates who had been turned 
away from higher education institutions.

Dr. MarIa del Carmen Fernandez Morales, coordinator of the 
Cuba-Venezuela Education Accord, and national advisor to the Venezuelan 
Mission Sucre program, said that approximately half of the students 
benefited by this program are now studying to become teachers and that 
a considerable amount of young Venezuelans are studying Community 
Medicine, a strategically important area for the future of Venezuela.

The Mission Sucre project began in 2003 with the help of Cuban advisors 
and has now spread throughout the country. It includes 24 national 
education programs, in which 26,000 Venezuelan teachers work giving 
regular courses, generally in alternative venues.

The first graduation of educators is expected to occur during the first 
half of 2008 and 3,592 Venezuelan teachers are currently taking 
postgraduate courses thanks to agreements signed between the two 
countries, reports Granma newspaper.

In addition to expanding university access, Mission Sucre seeks new 
ways to try to breakdown obstacles faced by Venezuelans wishing to 
continue their education and to find new modalities and models of 
providing university education.