Financing for equity in pre-primary education
1. Education resources to subnational governments
2. Education resources to institutions
3. Education resources to students and families
4. Social policies and family support programmes
Introduction
Early childhood education in Venezuela constitutes the first stage of the national education system and covers children from birth to six years of age. According to the Organic Law of Education (2009), early childhood education (educación inicial) is organized into two sub-levels: maternal education (0–3 years) and preschool education (3–6 years). The preschool stage prepares children for entry into primary education and aims to support their integral development during early childhood.
Early childhood education may be delivered through both institutional and community-based modalities, which seek to expand access to early educational services for children in different social and territorial contexts.
There are two types of Early Childhood Education Centers (ECEC):
Conventional Early Education Centers, which are educational institutions that provide services for all children from maternity age (zero to three years) to preschool age for three to six years. Preschool education is the first part of compulsory education in Venezuela.
Non-conventional early education centers are spaces that offer care to children who do not have access to conventional care. These centers rely on the participation of teachers and significant adults or community promoters, and may utilize various premises and spaces in the community environments such as family centers, toy libraries, community centers for comprehensive care and spontaneous childcare arrangements.
Key financing indicators (UIS Data)
In Venezuela, the official entrance age to pre-primary education is three years old. There are three years of free pre-primary education granted in legal frameworks. Three years of compulsory pre-primary education are granted in legal frameworks. In 2017, the net enrolment rate for pre-primary for both sexes was 68.05%.
Governance
At the national level, education is overseen by the Ministry of People’s Power for Education (MEPPE). The 1999 Constitution of Venezuela, recognizes education as a fundamental human right, and establishes the responsibility of the State to guarantee free acess to public education. The constitution also states that preschool education is under the governance and administration of local municipalities.
Tuition-free status
Pre-primary education is tuition-free, according to laws and policies.
1. Education resources to subnational governments
Public financing for pre-primary education in Venezuela is not organized through a dedicated funding mechanism specifically targeted at early childhood education. Instead, funding for pre-primary education forms part of the broader public financing framework of the education system and follows the same fiscal mechanisms used for basic education.
Within the Venezuelan fiscal structure, intergovernmental transfers constitute an important mechanism for distributing public resources from the central government to sub-national governments. One of the main instruments is the Situado Constitucional, established in Article 167 of the 1999 Constitution. This provision stipulates that up to 20% of the total estimated ordinary revenues of the national budget must be transferred to state governments as part of the constitutional revenue-sharing system.
The Constitution also establishes conditions for the use of these transfers. In particular, state governments must allocate at least 50% of the resources received through the Situado Constitucional to investment programmes, which may include initiatives related to education, culture, science and technology, as well as the construction and equipment of educational infrastructure.
In principle, these transfers may contribute to the financing of educational services, including early childhood education, through mechanisms such as coordinated investment plans prepared jointly by the National Executive and state governments. Municipal governments may also allocate resources to early childhood education using their share of constitutional transfers as well as locally generated revenues.
2. Education resources to institutions
Public financing for pre-primary education institutions in Venezuela follows the same general funding structure used for basic education. Resources for public educational institutions are primarily allocated through the centralized budget of the Ministry of People’s Power for Education (Ministerio del Poder Popular para la Educación), which covers operational expenditures such as salaries for teachers and administrative personnel working in public education centres.
In practice, school financing in Venezuela is largely organized through centrally administered budget lines rather than through direct institutional grants. As a result, most public funding allocated to educational institutions—including pre-primary centres—takes the form of personnel expenditures managed at the national level.
The salary structure for teachers may include additional compensation associated with specific working conditions, such as teaching in rural or border areas, working in multi-grade classrooms, or participating in bilingual intercultural education programmes in indigenous communities. These differentiated conditions can contribute indirectly to addressing territorial disparities in access to education.
The government must ensure sufficient financial resources to be able to finance bilingual education centers in regions with indigenous populations that help to preserve their own cultural life and knowledge.
In addition to institutional centres, early childhood education services may also be delivered through alternative or community-based programmes intended to expand coverage for children who are not enrolled in conventional educational institutions. Non-conventional educational care projects such as the SimoncitoProject and Teacher at Home help to support families and children who have been excluded from the system. Both projects aim to provide education for children between 0 and 6 years old.
3. Education resources to students and families
In Venezuela, financial support mechanisms directed specifically to households to facilitate participation in pre-primary education are limited. The institutional design of the education system relies primarily on the principle of free public education, whereby access to public educational services is guaranteed without tuition fees. Consequently, support to families tends to be provided indirectly through social programmes associated with the public education system rather than through direct financial transfers such as vouchers, grants, or tax incentives for parents.
One of the most relevant programmes in this area is the School Feeding Programme (PAE), which provides meals to students attending public educational institutions. Although the programme is mainly oriented toward school-age children, it also benefits children enrolled in early childhood education centres and therefore functions as an indirect mechanism supporting participation in the education system, particularly among children from economically vulnerable households.
4. Social policies and family support programmes
In general terms, social policies implemented outside the education sector do exist that provide financial support to households with school-aged children through monetary transfers. Bono de Escolaridad 100%, introduced in 2019 by the Ministry of People’s Power for the Social Work Process as part of a broader set of social assistance programmes aimed at supporting families with children enrolled in school.
The programme consists of a direct monetary transfer to households, provided for each child registered in the system, with the purpose of helping families cover education-related expenses. Access to the benefit is administered through the “Carnet de la Patria” system, a digital platform created in 2017 to manage the distribution of various social benefits and subsidies.
This profile has been reviewed with the support of national expert Dr. Luis E. Torres-Nunez.
