For 50 years since the Revolution of 1959, Cuba has shown what can be accomplished in the fields of education and culture by a society that puts people before profit, promoting cooperation not competition. Its democratic planned economy has made possible remarkable achievements that have benefited the entire Cuban population and, through Cuba’s internationalism, millions of poor people around the world. Rebecca Rensten and Helen Yaffe report.
Education in Cuba is regarded as a human right and a duty for all citizens: for better child care and family life; for handling the difficult transition from childhood to adulthood; for improving health, diet and hygiene; to satisfy cultural needs and produce well-rounded individuals; for providing the political understanding to withstand cultural imperialism and brainwashing; for reducing privilege and relative poverty, and the social exclusion, crime and anti-social behaviour that stems from them. Within Cuba’s planned economy, education acquires three functions; education as culture, political education and education for production;* combined, these functions create a varied and well-rounded education system that has succeeded where capitalist provision is failing, leaving millions uneducated and unemployed.
Educated for capitalism
Back in 1779, US President Thomas Jefferson proposed a two-track system for the ‘labouring and the learned’ with the aim of ‘raking a few geniuses from the rubbish’. The separation in schooling was established to instil obedience, patriotism and passivity in the working class, and so it remains today in Britain as well as in the US.
The plethora of titles under which Britain’s education system is organised, such as beacon colleges, comprehensive schools, academies, selective schools, independent schools, public (private) schools, do not disguise the fact that education perpetuates the class divide. Private or ‘independent’ schools provide better facilities and attention, and significantly increase the likelihood of success in educa-
tional qualifications, employment and wealth. Research by Halifax Financial Services calculates average annual fees for private education at £10,239, but the national average median income of UK households in 2007/08 was £20,436. Clearly only a minority can afford these luxuries. Success and power or poverty and lack of education are largely determined from birth in Britain. Even within state schools pupils are often streamed according to test results – beginning the process of social stratification. As students become workers they are allocated a position according to the demand for labour within the capitalist production process.
Education in Cuba
Pre-revolutionary Cuba exemplified the class divide in education. In the 1950s there were only 82 high schools and two universities nationwide. 90,000 students were enrolled in private schools. 60% of the population lacked schooling and 41.7% of the population was illiterate. Only 3.5% had received high school education and just 1% had university education.
Inequality in education was regarded as a legacy of colonialism, slavery and imperialist domination by the Movement for the 26 July (M26J), the revolutionary movement led by Fidel Castro in the struggle against the Batista dictatorship from 1952. In the late 19th century, Cuba’s national independence hero, Jose Marti, stated: ‘To be educated is to be free’. The slogan was adopted by the M26J whose revolutionary programme declared: ‘We believe that true democracy can be attained only with citizens who are free, equal, educated and have dignified and productive jobs.’ The link between democratic participation, education and production could only be realised under a socialist system.
From January 1959, the revolutionary government took steps to create a free and more productive education system. The 1960 literacy campaign recruited 300,000 young Cuban volunteers to live in the poorest rural areas teaching peasants and rural workers to read and write. Within a year every Cuban had achieved basic literacy. 37 schools were built in the first year of the revolution, compared to one school built in the previous 57 years.
Education as culture
The Constitution of Cuba establishes that the government: ‘orients, foments and promotes education, culture and science in all their manifestations and specifically espouses the freedom of artistic creation, the defence of Cuban cultural identity, and the conservation of the nation’s cultural heritage’. This concept of cultural education and education as culture is overseen by the Ministry of Culture and there are cultural centres, music clubs, book groups, chess clubs and free after- school educational activities in every municipality throughout the island.
In 2003, Fidel Castro said: ‘I qualify what is currently taking place in Cuban education in search of higher objectives as a profound revolution. It is the total transformation of society itself, one of whose fruits will be a general integrated culture accessible to all citizens. The very material future of our people is to be based on knowledge and culture.’ He was referring to measures introduced under the Battle of Ideas, a campaign initiated in 2001 to consolidate socialist principles and improve material conditions in Cuba.
Political education
In December 1961, ‘Schools of Revolutionary Instruction’ were set up to emphasise the importance of theoretical education alongside practical work. Political education was integrated into schools at every level. As well as teaching Marxist theory and Cuban history, high school students study other countries’ histories and political systems. Emphasis is given to Cuba’s national heroes, with the revolutionary writings of Jose Marti being studied by every child. This education in international affairs provides the ideological basis for Cuba’s remarkable proletarian internationalism – the solidarity it expresses for people around the world.
Education for production
After the adoption of the planned socialist economy, production was no longer a means to exploit the working class for profit but to meet people’s immediate needs and to fund new social programmes for universal benefit. Work is understood as a social duty, not for private enrichment. An individual raising their skills level leads to improvements in living standards for everyone. Education and training are integrated into workplaces and ministries.
Che Guevara noted that under capitalism students don’t take qualifications in relation to society’s needs or what job roles are available. Often careers are chosen for the earning capacity of the qualifications. In pre-revolutionary Cuba, there were many qualified lawyers but few geologists, chemists or engineers; the kind of skills necessary to develop the economy, which was dominated by the US. Under socialism, Che insisted, careers should be studied according to the national development strategy and the needs of the nation. He emphasised cooperation not competition in education and training.
Today in Cuba every graduate has the opportunity to work because their qualifications are in direct proportion to the amount of employees in the specific field that are needed. Students entering universities list subjects they would like to study in order of preference. Whether they get their first choice depends on the need for people qualified in that area, compared with the number of applicants. Course places are allocated according to grades and student performance. It is unrealistic and impractical for everybody to be able to study their first choice and would lead to unemployment as it does under capitalism.
The Cuban education system also enshrines the principle of the importance of engaging in manual and intellectual labour. Many students attend boarding schools in the countryside where their time is divided between academic study and agricultural or other manual work. Students frequently volunteer to carry out extra productive work, because they realise that their contribution helps to fund these institutions and other social investments.
With the Battle of Ideas in 2001, the government opened emergency training schools to combat deficiencies in five areas: social work, primary teaching, nursing, cultural education and IT instruction. The campaign incorporated thousands of young people who had been marginalised from the revolutionary process, being outside education and employment, as a result of the economic crisis generated by the collapse of the Soviet bloc. It also responded to the demand to improve standards of social provision; improvements made possible by economic recovery from the Special Period. The first new training school was opened in Cojimar, near Havana, to teach social work intensively for three months (soon expanded to a year). Students could then choose to enrol on a university course, on the condition that they practised social work on Saturdays during the course. Six hundred students enrolled immediately. Hundreds of similar schools were set up throughout Cuba and by 2004, 21,000 social workers and 10,135 primary school teachers had graduated on the scheme.
By 2007 there were more than 7,000 projects initiated as part of the Battle of Ideas: more new schools were built to continue reducing class sizes, hundreds of adult education and technical training courses were started, including a television-based ‘university for all’ programme, it was ensured that every classroom on the island had access to a TV and video player, computers were put in every school, and a national network of video and computer clubs was created.
Between 2002/3 and 2008/9 the number of classroom teaching staff was increased by nearly 60,000 to 270,053. Of those, 81,975 are primary school teachers, which explains how it is possible that 94% of primary school pupils are in groups of less than 20. The Cuban average retention and graduation rate for high school students is 97.5%, compared to 52% in the 50 biggest US cities and 25% in Detroit. The number of Cubans who complete all educational levels went up from just over 500,000 in 2002/3 to 640,000 in 2007/8. The increase was most significant in higher education, or university level, up from 18,412 in 2002/3 to 44,738 in 2007/8. Since 1987 over 2,100,000 Cubans have graduated from computer courses
at the Youth Computing and Electronics Club which is now open in all 167 municipalities, including 39 in the mountains. Government expenditure on education rose from 6.9% of GDP in 2000 to 12% in 2008 and adult literacy is 99.8%. Education is free and available for everyone.
Education for humanity
Through Cuba’s outstanding internationalism, its educational achievements have benefitted poor people around the world. The Revolution’s educational assistance overseas began with a literacy campaign in Angola, 1978 to 1981. In 1980, Cuban teachers joined the Literacy Crusade in Nicaragua. Building on the success of its teaching method, they developed a literacy programme for adaptation into different languages and by communities around the world. By June 2008, the ‘Yes, I can’ (Yo Si Puedo) Cuban method was being applied in 28 countries coordinated by Cuban specialists. Over 3,600,000 people from 23 countries, from New Zealand to Nigeria and Guatemala to Equatorial New Guinea, had learned to read and write using the programme and another 330,000 illiterate people in 17 countries were being taught by Cubans. Over a dozen different versions of the programme have been devised including in Quechua and Aymara (for Bolivia), Creole (for Haiti), Tetum (for Timor L’Este) and Swahili (several countries in Africa). This contribution was recognised by UNESCO in 2006 which awarded Cuba for their international literacy work. Cuba also provides free education on the island to tens of thousands of students from Africa and Latin America.
The Cuban education system is constantly evaluated and improved. These amazing achievements in education are not coincidental; socialism in Cuba is evident in these overwhelming successes which are down to a system that values its people now, while also planning for and investing in future generations. Socialism is the only sustainable way of securing a genuine education and good standard of living for everyone. Education ensures that socialist Cuba stays free.
* See Helen Yaffe, Che Guevara: The Economics of Revolution, Palgrave Macmillan 2009.
FRFI 211 October / November 2009
