Caracas - Venezuelan private schools will have to abide by a "Bolivarian" educational system or risk being nationalized, President Hugo Chavez warned Monday. The left-wing populist Chavez said the country's constitution recognizes private schools, but that these will still be required to abide by a set national curriculum.
As he opened the new academic year at a school in eastern Venezuela, Chavez said he expects the public school system to have wholly standardized curricula, hours and mechanisms within three years.
"If private schools do not abide by the Bolivarian educational system, then we will have to close the school, to intervene in it, to nationalize it and to take the responsibility for those children," he said.
According to Chavez, the suggestion that the state should not get involved in education is a "thesis of capitalism, of the so-called social democracy that some want to revive."
He denied that educational programmes are being devised with the help of Cuban teachers, although he defended the proposal that students learn about socialism.
"Bolivarian" refers to Chavez's nationalist, socialist political philosophy that combines the values of South American independence hero Simon Bolivar with Chavez's own brand of 21st century socialism.
Over the past year, Chavez has nationalized large portions of the country's energy industry. The legislature has also given him the right to govern by decree.
