The Internet Travel Guide "Getting to Know Cuba"

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Education

Cuba has an excellent educational system for which it spends almost a quarter of its national budget. In this way, one of the main aims of the revolution, equal opportunities for the population, could become a reality.

Cuban children in school uniforms

An extensive literacy campaign, started in 1961, made it possible to decrease the percentage of illiterate persons from 24% to today's figure of 3.9%. This is a huge success compared to other countries in South America and even compared to the U.S. By recruiting so-called alfabetizadores (informal teachers of basic reading and writing skills), a high level of literacy was achieved, and at the same time, the campaign became a major cultural mass movement. The people were teaching the people. Teaching was done by trained teachers, but there was an insufficient number to also serve the more remote parts of the country. For that purpose, alfabetizadores populares were employed - men and women without special educational training. In addition, the schools were closed for a couple of months, the pupils were trained in seminars and were sent to isolated parts of the country to work with the farmers and to teach them to read and to write. About 700,000 alfabetizadores were trained this way. The educational programs following this campaign still continue.

Children during the midday break

School supplies, meals, school uniforms and lodging are free for every student, meaning that almost everyone in Cuba today is able to finish school. Since 1977, it has been compulsory to attend school for nine years, and parents who do not send their children to school are punished. To make it possible for both parents to work, school runs the whole day. Pupils and students work in the fields for a couple of hours every day, which is meant to create a balance between intellectual and physical work.
In Cuba, both regular schooling as well as adult education can lead to a university education. Today, half of the students at Cuban universities are workers who want to continue their education in their free time, and the Cuban population has a higher level of education than any other country in the region.