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University World News
August 14, 2011
Citation: http://tinyurl.com/82w8knd
Member states of Latin America's left-leaning political bloc known as Alba are organising to create an integrated higher education system. The eight participating nations aim to pool resources with a view to strengthening their universities. But the initiative, which has a strong socialist and anti-US agenda, has come in for widespread criticism.
The Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America, or Alba - which includes among others the governments of Venezuela, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Bolivia and Cuba - was founded by Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez in December 2004.
The alliance's higher education integration initiative was announced in Nicaragua in June and emphasises strengthening universities and sharing advances made with each of the member countries.
But while pooling resources in higher education is a positive step, according to Kevin Casas Zamora (pictured), a former Costa Rican vice-president and political analyst with the Brookings Institution, it is dangerous when linked to a political agenda.
Article clipped; see link above for full version
Members of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America, as known as ALBA, are proposing a collaborative higher education system. It is their hope that by pooling all of their resources together that these eight nations will be able to form a network of universities that will support the demand for more venues of higher education in their respective countries. However, this proposal has gained a significant amount of criticism because of the political agenda that is often associated with such projects accomplished through this alliance. In this case, how can education and free thought be fostered in an environment laden with stringent socialist and anti-U.S. ideologies. Not only does the underlying "education" seem to be problematic, but also the coordination of a cohesive curriculum and grading structure. While ministry officials from the two main countries, Cuba and Venezuela, assure that the a unified, integrated system is possible, critics remain skeptical of the accomplishment of such a large venture.
With this type of politically driven university system it is important to consider the role that education will play outside of the institution of learning. Now from a functionalist perspective one could see how this system would easily be able to satisfy the needs within both local and national contexts. However, the implications of this UNIALBA system could have more complex and global implications. It is hard to ignore that these ALBA nations would use this system to propagate the standard set of norms supported by a socialist society. This system has been presented by ALBA ministry officials as a way to not only open up more opportunities for their citizens to learn and grow, but also as a way to preserve what they believe to be their values and beliefs. Within UNIALBA, their way of life could be culturally and socially reproduced. (see
http://tinyurl.com/c87jnx5)
While this may be a very rational response preserve the common identity of these nations, their socialist and anti-U.S. views might support a narrow minded world view. Not only could this type of curriculum be designed to eliminate all opposing ideas, but it could also present a space to openly challenge relations with other non-socialist countries within and outside of Latin America. These are the types of questions that need to be raised in order to solicit the true nature of this education system. What consequences will this type of education system have on these Latin American citizens? Will their underlying political agenda pose a threat to other Latin American countries? One might even go further to see if the support for these ideologies on such an immense scale does pose a threat to U.S. national security?
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