Education is one of those things. Every child born in Cuba is guaranteed a free education from primary school through advanced studies. It is the collective philosophy that education is a basic right and the avenue for improving society. It stems in large part to the vision of Jose Marti, Cuba's national hero, who said that "education begins with life and ends with death." Along with health care, ed
ucation is the government's highest priority. THAT WASN'T THE case in the 1950s. According to Jorge Gonzalez Corona, an adviser to the Ministry of Education and a longtime teacher who spoke with our group, half of the school-age children were not enrolled in school. Ninety percent of the education was centered in the primary schools with only 1 percent devoted to higher education. Consequently, as 1959 rolled around, a population of 6 million people included fewer than 12 percent educated beyond the sixth-grade level. Then came the revolution and the change in government. That is when the turn for an educated society began. Seventy military garrisons were immediately turned into schools with a curriculum that concentrated on history, math, philosophy, and basic Spanish grammar and writing. Fidel Castro went to the United Nations in 1961 and brazenly declared that his government would "overthrow illiteracy within a year." And he proposed to do it, Gonzalez said, by recruiting 100,000 students to spread out through rural communities to educate children while living with farm families. The prediction was a bit off -- actually several years off -- but today, with 2,000 more schools than in 1965, Cubans enjoy a literacy rate of 98 percent, one of the highest in Latin America.
For further details visit as :http://chronicle.augusta.com/stories/2009/08/08/op__543673.shtml
ucation is the government's highest priority. THAT WASN'T THE case in the 1950s. According to Jorge Gonzalez Corona, an adviser to the Ministry of Education and a longtime teacher who spoke with our group, half of the school-age children were not enrolled in school. Ninety percent of the education was centered in the primary schools with only 1 percent devoted to higher education. Consequently, as 1959 rolled around, a population of 6 million people included fewer than 12 percent educated beyond the sixth-grade level. Then came the revolution and the change in government. That is when the turn for an educated society began. Seventy military garrisons were immediately turned into schools with a curriculum that concentrated on history, math, philosophy, and basic Spanish grammar and writing. Fidel Castro went to the United Nations in 1961 and brazenly declared that his government would "overthrow illiteracy within a year." And he proposed to do it, Gonzalez said, by recruiting 100,000 students to spread out through rural communities to educate children while living with farm families. The prediction was a bit off -- actually several years off -- but today, with 2,000 more schools than in 1965, Cubans enjoy a literacy rate of 98 percent, one of the highest in Latin America.For further details visit as :http://chronicle.augusta.com/stories/2009/08/08/op__543673.shtml
