The Government of the Republic of Cuba places the greatest importance on its citizens full enjoyment of the human right to education. Quality education which totally respects cultural identity and which includes values and principles that foster solidarity, social justice, mutual respect, patriotism and a profound knowledge of humanity’s historic, cultural and artist heritage and of its peoples’ customs have been the clear guidelines followed in developing Cuba’s educational system, from the triumph of the Revolution on.
In 1953 Cuba had only about 6.5 million inhabitants; more than half a million children had no school and more than 2 million people were completely or functionally illiterate. Only half of the school population went on to secondary school; there were 10,000 unemployed teachers; about 550,000 children aged between 6 and 14, almost half the total number, did not go to school. The population over the age of 15 had an average educational level of less than three years of primary school.

One of the first measures taken by the Revolutionary government was the eradication of illiteracy and the creation of the conditions to ensure free, good quality universal education at all levels, the results of which are clearly seen in Cuba’s achievements in this field.

If one takes the advances in the educational field into account, the goals set out by UNESCO for 2015 have already been met.

These results notwithstanding, and in order to continue improving the Cuban educational system, new educational strategies have been developed which have further empowered administrators, teachers and students to act as the protagonists of educational changes.

In order to continue developing education and implementing these new strategies, the Cuban State has allocated 3,825 million pesos to education in the 2004 budget.

As far as it has been able, the Cuban people has collaborated with other developing countries in the educational field. More than 17,000 young people from more than 110 countries are studying various subjects in Cuba, most of them at the higher level.

Cuba proposed a project to provide UNESCO with 20 scholarships a year which has been approved and is now in the revision and implementation phase. The project should begin in 2004 and is for countries in Africa but could possibly be extended to other regions.

Cuba has also offered its support for a universal literacy programme. Cuba would contribute a large part of the technology and specialist human resources needed. All that would have to be done is to mobilise an infinitesimal portion of the financial resources which float about the world every year and which would not exceed 0.01% of the GDP of OECD countries. If the programme proposed were put into practice, 1,500 million illiterate and semi-illiterate people all over the world could learn to read and write and study up to the sixth year of primary school.

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