Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
07HAVANA646
2007-07-05 17:03:00
CONFIDENTIAL
US Interests Section Havana
Cable title:  

CUBA: PROBLEMZ IN SKOOL

Tags:  SCUL KDEM PHUM CU 
pdf how-to read a cable
VZCZCXRO4152
RR RUEHAG RUEHROV
DE RUEHUB #0646/01 1861703
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
R 051703Z JUL 07
FM USINT HAVANA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 1941
INFO RUCNMEM/EU MEMBER STATES COLLECTIVE
RUEHWH/WESTERN HEMISPHERIC AFFAIRS DIPL POSTS
RUEHROV/AMEMBASSY VATICAN 0126
RUEHSW/AMEMBASSY BERN 0146
RUEHGV/USMISSION GENEVA 0146
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK
RHEHAAA/NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL WASHINGTON DC
RUCOGCA/COMNAVBASE GUANTANAMO BAY CU
RUESDM/JTLO MIAMI FL
RUMIAAA/USCINCSO MIAMI FL
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 HAVANA 000646 

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 07/03/2017
TAGS: SCUL KDEM PHUM CU
SUBJECT: CUBA: PROBLEMZ IN SKOOL


HAVANA 00000646 001.3 OF 002


Classified By: COM Michael E. Parmly; Reasons 1.4 (b/d)

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 HAVANA 000646

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 07/03/2017
TAGS: SCUL KDEM PHUM CU
SUBJECT: CUBA: PROBLEMZ IN SKOOL


HAVANA 00000646 001.3 OF 002


Classified By: COM Michael E. Parmly; Reasons 1.4 (b/d)


1. (SBU) Summary: A group of independent teachers discussed
with USINT COM and staff the many problems facing Cuba's
educational system, making it clear that the Cuban regime's
self-promoted reputation as an education success story is
propaganda based on only some elements of truth. Main
problems are:

-- Poor conditions of work, including low salaries, for most
teachers;

-- Nationwide staffing gaps, filled by unqualified
substitutes;

-- Politicization of subject matter;

-- Political criteria for higher grades and places in the
best schools.

The independent teachers acknowledged that the Castro regime
did successfully broaden access to education in the 1960s and
that technical quality of instruction was (1) inherited from
pre-revolutionary period, and (2) maintained with large
infusions of aid from the Soviet Union until 1990. They said
that Cuban education has gone steadily downhill since then, a
trend made even worse by the regime's information blockade
leaving Cuba way behind the rest of the world in computers
and internet. End Summary.


2. (SBU) The Myth: The Castro regime has claimed education,
health, and sports to be the three "great achievements of the
revolution," a boast that is echoed all over the world, even
in the context of international reports about Cuba's dismal
human rights record. Regime apologists are willing to accept
human rights abuses as a fair exchange for the "three great
achievements," and then blame any shortcomings on the United
States' embargo. Cuba has, by statistics the regime
generates itself, the highest literacy rate in Latin America,
and exports its literacy campaign, called "Yes I can" ("Yo si
puedo") to other countries in the region. Cuba also imports
students from all over the third world for certain university
programs, especially in medicine and physical education.


3. (SBU) The reality, as usual, is not consistent with the
myth. Cubans themselves tend to joke about the "three great
achievements" by saying that the "three great failings" of
the revolution are: Breakfast, lunch and dinner. We have

heard and seen many anecdotal examples of Cuban education
falling short; as recently as last week, two nuns from
eastern Cuba told COM, DCM and PAO that school children in
their parish commonly have problems with basic reading and
math skills. Letters sent to USINT from Cuban adult citizens
are typically riddled with spelling or syntax errors, not
necessarily demonstrating illiteracy, but well short of the
standard you would expect from Cuba "the education
superpower." Regarding the foreign students, they are in
schools with better facilities than those available for
Cubans; tuition is not free to the sending country and is in
most cases a foreign exchange earner for the Cuban regime.


4. (C) At the urging and with the help of Roberto de Miranda,
president of the dissident independent teachers organization
("Colegio de Pedagogos Independientes"),USINT hosted an open
forum for some two dozen independent teachers. They came
from all over the island, and represented a wide spectrum of
subject matter expertise and experience at all educational
levels. One member is a Russian citizen who resides
permanently in Cuba and became a dissident out of
disillusionment with all things Soviet and Castroist. All
the members were fired from their teaching jobs when the
regime got wind of their opposition activities. They are now
officially unemployed, have had to take jobs as farmers or
grave-diggers, or eke out a living from remittances or the
black market.


5. (U) Observations from the independent teachers were as
follows:

-- Education is overly politicized. Students, starting from
an early age, are indoctrinated with revolutionary slogans
and ideology, and are force-fed the regime's version of Cuban
and world history. They join the "pioneers" (a cross between

HAVANA 00000646 002.3 OF 002


Boy/Girl Scouts and Hitler Youth) in the elementary grades
and recite the oath "We will grow up to be like Che Guevara."
Teachers and students are graded on both content and
political loyalty all through the system. Opportunities for
advancement are denied for the non-believers.

-- Teachers, like doctors, are an export commodity. The best
incentives are offered to the ones that go on overseas
missions, leaving the island short-staffed. Also, low pay
and inadequate teaching supplies are disincentives. Teachers
cannot make ends meet on 15 dollars a month, so prefer to
either take jobs in a higher paying area (like tourism),or
hustle on the side. Substitutes ("emergentes," the same word
used for baseball pinch-hitters) are unqualified. It is
common for the fill-in teachers to "teach" by sitting
children in front of a TV and playing video cassettes. The
teachers said that many parents have turned to hiring private
tutors, given the poor quality of teaching in state
classrooms, in order to help their kids get an education.

-- Students in their adolescence are commonly sent off to
rural camps for their schooling. There they are forced to do
agricultural work, and are vulnerable to more indoctrination
because they are away from their families. Food and sanitary
conditions are poor in these rural camps, and girls report
being sexually abused. Needless to say, children who pass
through these camps are exposed to values that are morally
bankrupt.

-- Cuba does a poor job of preparing students for the
information age. The GOC's internet restrictions make access
per capita the lowest in the hemisphere, and computers even
without internet access, are not affordable except to the
nomenklatura or families with relatives who send remittances.


-- The independent teachers were willing to give the regime
credit for having made education universally accessible in
the early years of the revolution, but at the cost of so much
political indoctrination. Purely technical subjects, they
said, were taught well during the Soviet client-state period,
thanks to large subsidies that allowed teachers to earn
adequate salaries.


6. (C) Comment: Educating one's children is a Cuban cultural
value that has little to do with the coming to power of Fidel
Castro 48 years ago. The educational system that evolved
under the Castro regime has done very well to bolster the
regime's international image, while also leaving three
generations of Cuban students exposed to only official
versions of history and any other subject matter besides hard
sciences. When they study economics, for example, they are
taught that the profit motive is evil, that corporations
exist to exploit workers, and that securities markets are
examples of greed and speculation. All things considered we
would give the Cuban system at best a C-Plus; which is in
line with other countries in this region, but a failing grade
when compared to the A-Plus the regime always awards itself
in its relentless propaganda on this subject. During a
post-Castro transition we envision that the educational
system will require a great deal of modernization, complete
new sets of history and social science textbooks, and
ideological detox for teachers. The assembled teachers were
excited by the debate ("tertulia") with us, and we are
already planning follow-up activity to focus on helping Cuban
youth overcome the failure of the system that self-advertises
so much.
PARMLY