To complete the school year’s third and final cycles remotely, a student would be required to use information technology and information and communications technology infrastructure which, unfortunately, are not existent in the country.
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Amidst the nationwide lockdown for the COVID-19, the Ministry of Education of Valenzuela has postponed the instructed teachers and face-to-face classes to finish the academic year's second period remotely.

Incidentally, the start of quarantine coincided with the school year's final part. Also, carrying out the school year 2019 to 2020 school year's third and final cycles remotely would require the information technology and information and communications technology infrastructure, which, unfortunately, are not existent in the country.

Aristobulo Isturiz, the minister of education, said the decision to apply the so-called "pedagogical plan" to finish and complete the school year even at home through television, internet, community radios, and mobile phones, and in union with teachers, was a prevalent consultation carried out through the Homeland Card system, resulting in a referendum's restricted facade.

Possibility of Internet Connections in Venezuela

A question arises, though, concerning the remote schooling of the Venezuelan students. How real are the internet connections in this nation, and what technological groundwork, "Each Family is a School" program of the government will depend on?

Based on the complex data which the National Telecommunications Communication (CONATEL) released during the first quarter of this year, 59.9 percent of the population of Venezuela had access to the internet.

In connection to this, it should be noted that the telecommunications department includes both the basic mobile phone data plans and internet connections. More so, every smartphone needs to come with a basic data plan.

Additionally, this access varies depending on the region. Say, in Miranda State's metropolitan area, or the Capital District, around "109.68 and 109.69 percent access respectively," a doubtful figure, understandable only when one considers that people frequently travel to the capital region to purchase and subscribe to a mobile phone line or USB drive internet.

Factors Taken into Account

Meanwhile, the emergency pedagogical strategy, which provides more "rhetoric" than a severe assessment of reality in Venezuela, can barely be successful. This is surer still when the prolonged economic crisis, increased ICT equipment, and internet services cost and hyperinflation of the nation are taken into account.

More so Venezuela's infrastructure's dismantling, the US commercial and financial siege, the education's widespread decline, and the disappointing salaries which see the Venezuelan teachers get roughly $9 each month are also taken into account.

All of these, according to a report, are evident facts. Most Venezuelans, which include the students and teachers, don't have, at least, the minimum conditions required for the virtual schooling platforms, as the ministry proposes.

More so, the reality is that schools will be lost, and the Venezuelan students' shortcomings will deepen. The experts said it would have been smarter to accept this fact and recognize that the immediate battle is against the COVID-19, although temporarily, as this pandemic will end, sooner or later.

Lastly, it is a must to immediately take on the need to develop an educational system, actually, at the service of the technical and scientific progress of the nation, gifted with the modern tools allowing the people to face challenges in the future triumphantly.

And above all, it is essential to understand that the educational system's main component is the "teaching proletariat," which cannot carry on to be Venezuela's worst paid profession.

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