English is taught as a compulsory subject in the secondary education and in the "bachillerato" for five years. Bachillerato is a segment of secondary education similar to the baccalaureat, secondary school or American high school and is divided into two branches: sciences and humanities. According to the syllabus approved by the Venezuelan Ministry of Education in 1986 English language is considered as a tool to communicate with people from other countries and to obtain information in the areas of humanities, technology and science. For that reason it is taught using a Notional Functional Approach. In the bachillerato a Structuralistic Approach is used. Despite the lines provided by the syllabus, few people learn to speak the language with only the knowledge acquired at school.