Caracas, 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 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.”