Caracas, Venezuela, Apr 30, 2008 / 06:03 pm (CNA).- The Venezuelan Bishops’ Conference said this week that education should not be made a political issue, because it is the right of all Venezuelans to receive quality, values-based education.

“The ‘battle,’ as some have called it, over education is not a question of political wins or losses, because values and rights are not subject to the polling booth,” the bishops said in a statement read by the president of the Committee on Education, Bishop Jose Angel Divasson.

The statement, which was issued during the bishops’ 36th Extraordinary Plenary Assembly, expresses their concern that the educational system could be subjected to a political agenda, something which is “arbitrary and exclusive.”

The bishops criticized the “exaggerated militarism, the biased vision of history” that some want to impose on the new school curriculum.  They called for an “extensive national dialogue” about the theoretical, pedagogical and philosophical foundations that should be understood in light of the constitution and not interpreted unilaterally.”

They also called on the government not to implement the new curriculum and to make their educational policy plans public in order to prevent the spread of rumors.

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