"To be educated in order to be free" - José Martí
Fidel wisely said:
... "Our consciousness and the ideas sown by the Revolution throughout more
than four decades have been our weapons.
Revolution means to have a sense of
history; it is changing everything that must be changed; it is full equality and
freedom; it is being treated and treating others like human beings; it is
achieving emancipation by ourselves and through our own efforts; it is
challenging powerful dominant forces from within and without the social and
national milieu; it is defending the values in which we believe at the cost of
any sacrifice; it is modesty, selflessness, altruism, solidarity and heroism; it
is fighting with courage, intelligence and realism; it is never lying or violating
ethical principles; it is a profound conviction that there is no power in the
world that can crush the power of truth and ideas. Revolution means unity; it is
independence, it is fighting for our dreams of justice for Cuba and for the
world, which is the foundation of our patriotism, our socialism and our
internationalism..."
Speech given at the May Day Rally in Revolution Square on May 1, 2000.
For more than four decades, CUBA
has been building an unprecedented revolutionary work. Today it is accentuated by
the battle of ideas currently underway, demonstrating the Cuban concept that
equality is not limited to opportunities, but also extends to
possibilities.
We would like to share with you some of the
results of the Battle of Ideas being waged by this
remarkable country, creating a society that is increasingly more just, more
egalitarian, more and more human in every area and dimension.
The search for perfection in the social sphere, through education, culture, improvement of the quality of life, and the defence of human dignity in this part of the planet seems worlds away from global parameters, creating new challenges, new objectives and new hopes for all those who have the privilege of being born on Cuban soil.
It is also an invitation to all of us so far removed, in both kilometres and future projects, to witness these achievements and seek to understand how it might be possible to transfer Cuba's unbelievable experience to our own countries, our own communities, our daily lives, our thoughts, to help achieve the rebirth of hundreds of seeds, of thousands of good seeds, and to join together to build a fuller, more human society, one we all deserve for "simply" being human.
SCHOOLS FOR THE INTENSIVE TRAINING OF SOCIAL WORKERS
There are four of these schools in the country, with a total enrolment of 7,200 students. These are young people between the ages of 17 and 22, who have made the commitment to the Revolution and the people to undertake social tasks in the communities where they live. They are trained through an intensive 10-month course, taught by university professors, and continue their higher studies through a combination of distance education and in-service courses. They can choose from among 22 university study programmes in the humanities.
The four schools are located in the provinces of the City of Havana, Villa Clara, Holguín and Santiago de Cuba. The first 1079 social workers have already graduated, and they are currently working with children, adolescents and the elderly, not simply visiting homes and families, but incorporating schools, teachers and the entire community in their work.
The goal is to train no less than 35,000 social workers, or approximately one social worker for every 300 inhabitants, depending on the function they serve, in all of the country's municipalities.
SCHOOLS FOR THE EMERGENCY TRAINING OF PRIMARY SCHOOL TEACHERS
In Cuba, the dream of having classes with only 15 students per teacher at every grade level is almost a reality. One of the highest priorities is raising the quality of education, which creates the need for more teachers.
There are more than 5,500 young people between the ages of 16 and 17 enrolled in the five schools for the emergency training of primary school teachers. They are trained as teachers in a ten-month period, after which they work in a primary school in their own community while simultaneously continuing their higher studies in one of the 22 university study programmes in the humanities from which they may choose.
The first 1000 emergency-trained teachers are already at work. By September 2002, ALL of Cuba's primary school classrooms will have between 10 and 20 students per teacher.
ART INSTRUCTORS SCHOOLS
There are 15 of these schools in the country, one in every province, where young people aged 15 are trained as art instructors to work in primary, junior secondary and senior secondary schools, universities and cultural institutions. During their four-year programme of study, they not only receive classes, but also actively participate in the cultural life of the municipalities where they live. Every year, 4,000 new students enrol, hailing from the smallest, most isolated towns to the largest, most densely populated cities.
There are currently 7,789 young people enrolled in the first and second years of study. They are receiving comprehensive training in the fields of visual arts, music, dance and theatre. They will have the opportunity to continue with university studies in their fields of specialisation. These young people will play a crucial role in raising the general, comprehensive cultural level of the Cuban people, fulfilling the principle of promoting education, culture and social development in order to be the most cultured country in the world.
UPGRADING COURSES FOR UNEMPLOYED YOUTH
In Cuba, the vast majority of the population has at least a Grade 9 level education, but there are a certain number of young people who neither continue their education nor enter the workforce after they reach this point. Studies have revealed that the attitude adopted by these young people who are neither studying nor working was largely conditioned by their family setting, given that only 2% were the children of professionals. This serves to confirm the relationship between education, culture and marginality, and education, culture and crime.
A "new job" has been created for such young people: the job of studying. The goal is for these young people to acquire knowledge and culture. It is essential for them to have the opportunity for upgrading, study, social integration, and participation in production or the provision of services. The ultimate goal is FULL EMPLOYMENT for all Cuban youth.
These upgrading courses began in October of 2001 throughout the country, with 74,453 young people between the ages of 17 and 29 enrolled in 333 schools, with 4,813 instructors. A full 63.9% of them are young women (47,648) and 25.2% have children (18,903). They study subjects like computer science, English, geography, history and mathematics, through three-hour classes four times a week.
AUDIOVISUAL PROGRAMME
This was the first programme to emerge within the BATTLE OF IDEAS. It is aimed at providing children, adolescents and young people around the country with a more comprehensive education through the use of television and VCRs. These new teaching tools were installed in every school in the country, including the 1,944 primary schools in the rural areas where there is no electrical power, and the energy needed is supplied with solar panels.
Today there is a television set in every classroom, and three educational programmes for different age groups: My TV to Grow (primary school level), My TV to Learn (junior secondary), and My TV to Know (senior secondary).
Work is underway to develop a third television channel (there are currently two in Cuba) that will be devoted exclusively to educational programming.
PROGRAMME FOR TEACHING COMPUTER SKILLS IN PRIMARY SCHOOLS
In March of 2002, computer labs will be installed in all of the country's primary schools, in order to teach computer skills to children from kindergarten through Grade 6. There are currently 1,250 young people in Grade 11 being trained in Havana to work as computer instructors in the primary schools. In the rest of the country, over 15,000 primary school teachers and Grade 12 students were given an intensive training course between August and December of 2001 and are now teaching computer skills. For the schools that use solar panels or are difficult to reach, almost 2,000 teachers from the schools themselves were retrained.
OTHER PROGRAMMES
Fidel Castro declared:
... "Education is everything, education is sowing values, it is developing ethics, an attitude
towards life. Education is sowing feelings. Education is seeking all of the good
in the soul of a human being, whose development is a struggle of opposing
forces, with an instinctive tendency towards selfishness and other attitudes
that must be counteracted, and can only be counteracted through
awareness..."
Centro de Estudios sobre la
Juventud
Avenida de las Misiones No. 3 / Peña Pobre y
Cuarteles,
Habana Vieja, Ciudad
de La Habana.
Teléf.: 537-670227, E-mail:
cesj@jcce.org.cu