The national budget for education in Venezuela accounts for 7.4 percent, said Monday President Hugo Chávez.

The head of state disclosed the numbers during a meeting with high-school students in Maturín, the capital city of eastern Monagas state, to mark the beginning of the 2007-2008 school year, reported official news agency ABN.

President Chávez remembered that when he took office in 1998, there was no money to pay public education teachers.

The national budget for education amounted to 3.6 percent, he said.

The president added that there was no money either to pay public utilities, "let alone to build new high schools."