Feature: Selected Sport and Physical Education Career OpportunitiesNo.52
January 2008
 
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Career Development in Physical Education and Sport in Venezuela
Rosa López de D’Amico

 

This article looks at the training of professionals in the area of Physical Education (PE) and Sport in Venezuela. It is divided in three parts. The first mentions the main legal basis and briefly indicates the structural divisions of PE and sport in Venezuela. It continues by identifying the characteristics of the bachelor degree in this country and presents a list of all the universities and technical institutes in which it is studied. The second part presents a discussion in terms of the changes that are occurring in the national education scheme and the role of the universities in the social context, including an historical evolution of the public and private university in Venezuela and how it responds to national law. The last section in entitled Challenges because it is acknowledged that changes for the benefit of the practice of PE have increased; more attention has been given by the national government to physical activity, sport practice and sponsorship but that is taking place in an historical moment in which there has been political unrest and it has provoked traditional structures, in this case universities, to struggle to cope with those changes. Nevertheless, even if they do not do anything, the changes are in fact taking place.
The National Constitution of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela recognises the importance of education and physical activity. It enforces in article 111 the right to practice sport and recreation in the understanding that it helps to provide life quality. National Physical Education, Recreation and Sport are present in all the government documents as a social right. PE is a compulsory subject from primary to high school. Government supports sport practice by individual, institutions and communities, which is enforced by the Education Law 1981 and Sport Law (1982, 1995), both currently under review. Sport in Venezuela is divided into two sectors: Official & Private (see, López de D’Amico, 2006).
In 1936, the Ministry of Education implemented courses (8 to 12 months) in order to educate instructors in the area of physical education and sport. In 1948, a 4 year course started at the Pedagógico de Caracas (Teachers Training Institute), but it was interrupted for several years until 1959 and since then has been definitely established as a university career. In 1960, the National Sport Coaches School (NSCS) was created, which was charged with training coaches over two years and providing them with a technical degree. Its system, however, was not recognised by the national education structures, so it was closed in 1976. Since then, there has not been a national coaches’ education scheme and this has been one of the variables that has affected the PE syllabus at universities because the NSCS started to replace preparation in PE with sports coaching.
After the late 1960s, the presence of the PE career at different higher education structures started to appear. In 1968, it was incorporated at the Pedagógico de Barquisimento, 1972 Pedagógico de Maracay, 1974 Pedagógico de Maturín, 1979 Universidad de Los Andes, 1982 Universidad del Zulia, 1989 Universidad de Carabobo. Since 1983, all the Teachers Training Institutes were upgraded to universities and were called Universidad Pedagógica Experimental Libertador (UPEL) with 8 official Institutes and several extensions located all over the country. In the 1990s, and during the first decade of 21st century, more universities have started the PE career (see table 1). The Bachelor in Physical Education can be obtained in Spanish as: “professor” or “licenciado”, the former is the degree obtained at the UPEL (Teachers Training University) and the latter is obtained from the rest of the universities in the country. Since the early 1980s, the National University Council has declared that both degrees have the same value in the national system: they are obtained in a 5 year (10 terms) study career. There are some high education institutes that also graduate students as professionals in PE but with a technical level.
Table 1: Universities & Institutes with the PE & Sport Degree in Venezuela
It is also important to mention that since 2000, Venezuela has sent more than 500 students to the “Escuela Internacional de Educación Física y Deporte” (EIEFD) in Cuba to study a Bachelor in Physical Education and Sport. In 2005, the first 186 graduated and since then, more than 300 hundred have finished their studies. They have returned to Venezuela and have been incorporated into different sport and PE settings.
According to the law, municipalities should provide their communities with physical activities, sport and recreation. Geographically speaking, there are 335 municipalities and 1084 parishes in the country. It means that if we calculate staff for sport management, mass participation, recreation and sport, around 10 080 professionals are necessary to cover these needs (MED; MES; IND, 2005). The situation gets even more complicated when we acknowledge that until very recently there were no institutions preparing professionals in specific areas (event management, facility management, mass sport activities, biomedical and applied science).
By 2005, there were 25 363 official and 5 735 private schools (total 31 117). All of these have pushed the need to create more opportunities to study physical education and sport. In the last year, the Iberoamerican Sport University was created, causing a huge step forward towards having more professionals to take care of the different areas of PE, sport, recreation and sport science.

Discussion
UPEL has been the university that has graduated the highest number of PE teachers. Graduates, especially from Pedagógico de Caracas, Barquisimeto and Maracay have later moved to the other national universities and institutes to start PE as a professional career. At the UPEL, those studies are managed by the Physical Education Department and in the other universities, it is a program that belongs to the Education Faculty.
The disappearance of the National Coaches School that existed during the 60s and 70s, was a negative contributor to the development of the PE syllabus. The universities started to compensate content related with sport education in the PE syllabus, so more emphasis was given to it, and it is evident in the syllabus of the 80s, 90s and even in early 2000. Still, nowadays, there is not a national coaches’ education scheme, but it has been acknowledged that the syllabus should be reviewed in order to really look at PE, recreation, health and environmental issues. This has also been provoked, among several variables, by the creation of new universities and the inclusion of the PE career in several universities since 2000. Nevertheless, until there is compensation for the lack of preparation for trained coaches, there will be a tendency to cover that in the PE syllabus so more emphasis should be given towards the professionalisation of coaches.
PE status in different scenarios, that is to say, academic, governmental and legal, has come a long way to be acknowledged as an important component at school and in society in general, but it is still struggling. The government, particularly in the last 8 years, has given strong support to PE and sport, historically speaking it was included in the Ministry of Education and the National Institute of Sport was in charged of mass and elite sport. In 2002, it gained the status of a Vice Ministry and early in 2007 the Ministry of Sport was created. The national constitution contains articles that support the importance of physical activity and other laws also support it, such as: education law, sport law, to mention the most important ones. PE career is now included in more universities and institutes of high education but still to be a PE teachers is not perceived, socially speaking, as a prestigious career.
PE in the National Education System is a compulsory subject at all levels except for university. It represents 6.9% of the syllabus at school with a 45 to 90 minute weekly class. Until this year, it was not compulsory at preschool nevertheless in many schools they introduced PE teachers (as pilot studies) at this level. In the last five years, national meetings have been taking place to modify the national education system and one of the changes that has been approved is that from 2008, PE teachers should start working at this level.
The Venezuelan education system is divided as follows:
Initial Education:
  I Period: 0 – 3 years old
II Period: 4 – 6 years old
Primary school
  I Period: Years 1 - 3
II Period: Years 4 - 6
High School and Technical Education
  I Period: Years 1 - 3
II Period: Years 4 – 5 or 4-6

At university there was a compulsory PE credit but it was substituted by social activities or sports credit in the general courses of the different careers.
The political polarization that exists nationally has provoked instability towards the traditional systems that were in place. The higher education system is fully sponsored by the government, except for some private universities, and government universities have a good prestige. Nevertheless, the gap between university and society has been increasing and moreover in education, some universities have turned their back towards the curriculum reforms that have been put in place in the last years. Consequently, the government has created parallel systems with universities created and PE included in their course lists. It has created problems for the traditional universities that graduate PE teachers because as they have not modified their syllabus to suit the changes that have been suggested by the government, the natural employer (public and private schools and high schools) is finding that their graduates are not updated with the new syllabus.
The creation of new universities is an old social request. In 1962, there were 11 universities and in 2004 the number increased to 162 but still this was not enough. It is important to keep in mind that according to the national constitutions all the citizens are entitled to have free education from the initial level (maternal – preschool) to university degree level. It was a contradiction that there were not enough higher education places to study PE, especially in a country in which it is very important to have a university degree instead of a technical one.
On the other hand, the relationship between public and private university has dramatically changed in the last 40 years. The gap over the years has been narrowed; until 1995 there were 68 public universities and 54 private. The numbers were reversed by 2004 when there were 72 public and 90 private universities (OPSU, 2005). Socially speaking, it was impossible to support the constitutional article that allowed free university education so the government started creating new universities. Among the first ones was the Universidad Iberoamericana del Deporte (Iberoamerican Sport University), which was an old demand. In Venezuela, there were many areas related to physical activity that had no place to be studied (e.g., sport management), and there were not enough places to study the existing ones e.g., physical education. For example in 2004 at UPEL Maracay, 700 students applied to study PE but there was just capacity for 90; at UPEL Caracas 900 applied but only 70 were accepted. One parallel system has been to sponsor undergraduate studies in PE courses overseas. In the case of Cuba (EIEFD), in the past only graduate studies were sponsored. A PE career has also been included in existing universities (e.g., Universidad experimental Francisco de Miranda) or in the Universidad Bolivariana de Venezuela (Bolivarian University of Venezuela) created in 2003.
Universidad Iberoamericana del Deporte is a joint initiative of the Ministry of Higher Education, Ministry of Education and Sport, National Institute of Sport and the State Government. It is expected that with the new careers created and the presence of Sport Science study in another university, there will be a clear understanding about the syllabus of PE and sport science

Challenges
The new syllabus that is in place and the changes that are to come in the national education system do bring new opportunities to PE. It is projected that new specialists need to be prepared (PE at preschool); recreation, health and environmental issues are incorporated as content in the syllabus and the number of hours weekly for PE is also projected to increase. On the other hand, municipalities and parishes are obliged to provide physical activities, recreation and sport services to their communities and it means more professionals need to be prepared to deliver these services.
Universities in general need to look at those changes and adapt their syllabus’, especially the traditional universities, otherwise, they will be outdated and there is considerable risk that their presence as public universities, fully sponsored by the government could be questioned, as has already started to happen. Graduate students from those universities will find it difficult to start in the work market, although, as many students start having practical experiences at schools during study (e.g., assistantships, on leave replacement, etc,) they could be more updated about the educational changes than their lectures at university; this has already started to occur.
The presence of more universities and opportunities to study PE means more coordination among the higher education level to look at the syllabus in place. There is a greater chance for this to occur with the Iberoamerican Sport University and others that have started to work in Sport Sciences, but more emphasis needs to be given to the discussion of the syllabus present in all those universities especially because they are government institutions. At the same time, it is recognised that there have been courses for coaches that have worked as ‘continuing education for coaches’. Nevertheless, until a national education coaches’ scheme is implemented, we will still be in debt to PE. Besides, there is not a National Association of PE Teachers or an organisation that looks at Health, Physical Education, Recreation, Sport and Dance, so there are just individuals working to be heard.
The syllabus’ at school and university have to look at the spreading sport practice at all levels. It is a big responsibility that is on our shoulders, particularly because we have not been able to increase physical activity habits in our students.
More managerial expertise for sport administrators is necessary at all levels and definitely the important role that research and academia needs to come into play in order to support sport development and, more importantly, PE understanding. The gap that has existed for years between research, academia and practitioners needs to be narrowed in order to look at ways in which they support each other. The Minister of Sport has initiated a program to support undergraduate and graduate studies overseas, which more frequently takes place with Cuba due to the bilateral agreements and language facilities. It has also started to sponsor some academics to participate in events in the Latin American region.
The new national sport structure is in the process of being consolidated and it needs time to be understood. However, with the various initiatives that have started (e.g., López de D’Amico & Gerrero, 2006), universities have to play a more active role in all of the changes that are taking place, including the challenges that the educational system is facing at the moment, adapting to new needs and spreading the practice of physical education and sport in several sectors.

References
López de D’Amico & Guerrero G. (2007). Recursos humanos para la actividad físico-deportiva. En J. Prado & V. Gonzalez, La educación física y el deporte en la República Bolivariana de Venezuela (pp. 95-117)
López de D’Amico, R. (2006). Organization of sport in Venezuela. En J. Parks, J. Quaterman y L. Thibault (Ed.) Contemporary Sport Management (pp. 330-331). USA: Human Kinetics
MED; MES; IND. (2005). Universidad del Deporte. Documento Rector. Venezuela: Author.
OPSU - Oficina de Planificación del Sector Universitario (2005) Oportunidades de Estudio en las Instituciones de Educación Superior. Proceso Nacional de Admisión. Caracas Venezuela.


Contact
Prof. Dr. Rosa López de D’Amico
Universidad Pedagògica Experimental Libertador
Maracay, Venezuela
Email: damicolopez@cantv.net





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