|
Cuba: 45 Years of Free Education
Cuba has offered accessible,
free education for all its
citizens for 45 years, since on
June 6, 1961, the revolutionary
government decreed the Teaching
Nationalization Law.
Two months after defeating the
US invasion of Playa Giron (Bay
of Pigs), the country ended the
education system that served a
privileged minority and brought
real democracy to teaching.
The legislation declared
teaching free and public, and
that the State proclaims it a
right of all Cubans.
At first the revolutionary
effort in education had to solve
the big problems left from the
neo-colonial system, end
illiteracy, and broaden
education services.
The Revolution opened more than
10,000 classrooms in the country
in 1959, which extended
education to 90 percent of those
between six to twelve years old.
Mass construction of schools and
the conversion of 69 garrisons
of the Batista dictatorship
(defeated in 1959) into
classrooms for 40,000 students
had great political and moral
repercussions.
The first Teaching Integral
Reform considered the full
development of the human being
as a crucial goal of education.
|
|
