Ministry of Education (Venezuela)
The Venezuelan Ministry of Popular Power for Education (Spanish: Ministerio del Poder Popular para la Educación) is the federal-level department responsible for organising the education system of Venezuela. In 2001 it was the Ministry of Education, Sport and Culture, with responsibility for Culture and Sport being assigned to separate ministries on 14 February 2005 and 6 January 2007. Administration The Ministry itself has four sub-departments, each overseeing different areas of education. They are the Department of Primary and Secondary Education, the Department of Higher Education and Research, the Department of Special Programs in Education, and the Department of Administration and Service. The Ministry maintains strict control over the curriculum, meaning it is almost identical at every level across the country in all institutions; in 2009, even more curriculum control was given to a council that is run as part of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela, which prompted protests. There are two education laws in the country, the 1940 Ley de Educación and the 1980 Ley Orgánica de Educación. In 1969 the government also adopted decrees 120 and 136, with plans to reform the general education curriculum. Since the entrance of the Chávez government, early-education reform took place to introduce