Venezuelan School Year Resumes after Rains

The 2010-2011 school year resumed Monday in Venezuela, after authorities were able to transfer 98 percent of rain victims out of school facilities and into other shelters.

President Hugo Chavez said on Sunday that huge efforts were made to fit out new shelters and efficiently relocate the 60,000 families who had been housed in 496 schools due to the emergency situation caused by the torrential rains.

In the last few days, all state institutions fit out spaces to house the homeless and offer them integral services.

Classes had been suspended on Dec. 7 in several Venezuelan states, pounded by the heavy rains in the last months of 2010.

Venezuela provides free education to more than four million students at the primary level, more than two millions in high school, and an equal number of university students, as well as those who benefit from the Sucre and Ribas educational programs.