CubaMinrex. Sitio del Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores de Cuba

Education: A Revolution within the Revolution

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.

1.-.The basic principles of Cuban education

a) The principle of mass education with equal access for all: Education is a right and a duty of all Cuban citizens. We have an educational system which covers all educational levels without distinction on the grounds of age, sex, race religious or place of residence. Special benefits exist so that children from low income families have equal opportunities to study and to education; these include boarding schools.

b) The principle of establishing links between work and study: This is the unity of theory and practice, with the aim of creating an awareness of being a producer, a creator in children and young people, by eliminating the prejudices that derive from the division between manual and intellectual labour.

c) The principle of the democratic participation of society in the task of education: This recognises that society is a huge school and education is a process that lasts a lifetime. It ensures that all grassroot, social and other non-governmental organisations participate in education, in designing educational strategies, in supervising education and in taking decisions about it, and that this participation is by all levels of society.

d) The principle of coeducation and of schools open to diversity: Guarantees that men and women have access to educational centres in any of the subject areas and professions which the aforementioned system offers. There are no distinctions made nor discrimination practiced on the grounds of skin colour, family income, the political ideas or opinion of the person being educated or of his or her relatives, etc.

e) Gender approach This ensures the elementary right of girls and women to have access to the educational system, given that the mother’s educational level is important for the education of her children.

f) The Principle of Differentiated Education and Assimilation into Public Schools: The attention given is tailored to the needs and potentialities of each person.

g) The Principle of Free Education: Education at all levels is free.

2.- The New Educational Revolution.

Even though Cuba has made enormous progress in making possible the human right to education, everything that we are planning and doing today will imply radical changes, the results of which will be seen in 10 years time. Moreover, given that these changes are all part of the revolutionary process, they will bear the solidarity-filled, altruistic, internationalist seal stamped on them by a society that engenders high values and a humanist ethics.

a) The Universalisation of Higher Education
Higher education in Cuba has undergone transformations so that it may serve the population’s interests. At this level the results of scientific research have increased as have post graduate studies.

In the last few months, there has been a far-reaching revolution at this level of education, bringing the universities ever closer to each and every Cuban. Every municipality in the country now has university classrooms, in which a growing number of subjects is taught. The municipalisation of higher education has allowed us to increase registration to 300,000 students who study on
732 campuses. This has provided new opportunities for any young person or adult to take university courses.

b) The University of the Future: The Digital City.

The University of Information Sciences, a new university which brings the number of institutions of higher education in the country to 46, has been given the task of educating professional to have a high level of scientific and technological knowledge. It is thought of as providing support for increasing the use of computers in the country, for producing software and for industrial services.

Currently there are 4,000 scholarship students registered. The new university has a faculty of more than 300 highly qualified instructors, who were recruited from 27 of the other universities.

The projected capacity of this Digital City is 10,000, with 2,000 students registering every year.

c) A Qualitative Leap in Primary Education

A programme has been put in place in Cuba to ensure than there are no more than 20 pupils per classroom. This is so we may be able to offer differentiated education, the foundation for the qualitative leap we envisage for Cuban schools.

This goal has been made possible through the repair of existing schools and building of new ones; the prioritization of university training of primary and early childhood education teachers; the creation of 30 pre-university vocational colleges for teacher training around the country; intensive training of new teachers; the introduction of audiovisual technology in all classrooms; and the introduction of computer instruction beginning at the early childhood education level. All of the country's schools are now equipped with one television per classroom and a VCR for every 100 students, while there are 24,000 computers distributed among the primary schools.

d) The challenge of secondary education

Major steps have been taken in secondary education to foster a closer link between teachers and students, promoting more individualized attention for students during the difficult period of adolescence.

A significant advance has been made in this direction through the concept of a comprehensive teacher for the seventh, eighth and ninth grades, able to teach all of the subjects corresponding to these grade levels —except for languages and physical education— and moving up with the same group of students through these three years of study, with a student/teacher ratio of 15 to one.

Other steps taken include the introduction of a full day of classes for junior secondary students (who formerly attended class for only half the day), the training of new teachers, and the use of audiovisual technology.

As a means of supporting this program, 567 new classrooms have been built in
98 schools, 4,000 new teachers have graduated from the Schools for the Intensive Training of General Comprehensive Junior Secondary Teachers, and
33,281 teachers have been retrained under this new concept of junior secondary education throughout the country.

As for senior secondary education —grades 10, 11 and 12— in both academic and vocational programs, new ideas are being developed that will inevitably include a combination of specialized teachers, incorporating the principle of individualized attention.

e) Special Education

Special education was initiated in Cuba 40 years ago, through the creation in 1962 of the Department of Special Education, aimed at attending to children with special educational needs, to the greatest extent possible and in accordance with their individual capacities. The goal of this program is not only to help these children to grow into self-sufficient adults, but to allow them to play an active part in society. No program of this kind existed previously.

Since 1962, special education in Cuba has developed into a whole system guaranteeing integrated educational, psychological, physical and medical attention for 100% of Cuban children with special educational needs, who currently number over 55,000.

Cuba has made significant progress in the study and research of genetically transmitted disorders, with the goal of diagnosing them from an early age, providing support for carriers and victims, and seeking ways to halt the transmission of some of the 80 disorders of this kind.

Cuba has produced a wide range of equipment, including Video-Voice, Medicid, Neuronica, and more recently Audic, which constitute an important means of support for special education. The effectiveness of the Audic technology has been demonstrated in Colombia, Mexico and China, where laboratories have been set up for the early detection of empaired hearing.

The audiovisual and computer programs have also been incorporated into this field of education, and have proven to be excellent tools to enhance learning.

The Latin American Special Education Reference Center was established in Cuba in 1990. The country's universities also offer a degree program in special education, from which over 10,000 professionals have graduated. There are over 400 special education schools, at which the principle of 20 or less students per teacher is also applied, in addition to daycare centers, special classrooms and classrooms in hospitals. More than 1000 students receive classes in their homes, provided by visiting teachers.

<< Back