Access, equity and socialisation for an alternative future: educational reform in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela

This paper provides a preliminary analysis of the content and nature of current reforms to mass school education in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. Under Hugo Chavez's government Venezuela has institutionalised non-formal "Educational Missions" to address illiteracy, universal access, and retention rates in primacy and secondary schooling, underpinned by the explicit goal of preparing citizens for a participatory, social-democratic model of national development. These policies are set in a broader political program advocating a "Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas" that shifts the character of regional relations and trade agreements to promote equity and social inclusion, and Chavez's call for the redefinition and construction of socialism for the twenty-first century. These radical political and educational goals are considered in terms of three major themes of access, equity and socialisation for an alternative future. The new system of schooling being established is finally considered in terms of world-systems theory as a framework for understanding the expansion and general character of mass education systems globally. It is argued that, at the level of public policy, there are significant indications of such outcomes, with real potential for schooling to break with convention and contribute to politically radical, anti-systemic, political goals.