Higher education in Cuba: A Vision (Part 1)

Higher education in Cuba: A Vision (Part 1) / Somos+
Posted on January 10, 2016

Somos+, Rolby Milian, 5 January 2016 — Education has always been one of
the propaganda bulwarks that the Havana regime has used to sell the
image of Cuba as a perfect, paradise society. Like so many others, this
has resulted in a lie of gigantic dimensions. But it's no secret that
lately the profound crisis in which the Cuban educational system is
plunged has become more and more evident. Fraud, the selling of exams,
poor academic results and the critical shortage of professors are some
of the reasons that the system of Cuban education, so acclaimed, free
and promoted, is in trouble.

Each one of the levels of teaching, by its intrinsic characteristics,
suffers decadence in its own way. This time I propose to explain my
vision of the problems that presently afflict higher education in our
country. Articulating problems and blowing off steam is something that's
been done for more than 50 years; many of us Cubans know very well how
to do it — some freely and where they like, and others in the context
they consider convenient and comfortable.

So I'm going to comment similarly about the general proposals that our
movement, Somos+, has put forth, for the education reforms, which, we
are convinced, will take place when we finally have the freedom to
implement a system of informed assessments, with our vision fixed on
prosperity for the country and freedom for each citizen.

One of the main problems of higher education in Cuba is that our
students can't gain access to all the information generated in the world
about the different subjects of study. They have to learn generally from
already out-dated books with retrograde visions and/or prejudiced
material, where each paragraph is totally politicized. This fully puts
the brakes on the possibility of continually modernizing the study
programs, and, of course, it circumvents the professors.

The consequence is that in more than 50 years of isolation, our teaching
plans are invalid, and many of our professionals, at the same instant
they graduate, aren't able to compete in the world labor market, which
has become more demanding and specialized.

Another visibly problematic situation is the increasing absence of
professors able to give classes with the level of excellence that a
university requires. The potential recent graduate prefers to look for a
way to emigrate (scholarship to study abroad, marriage to a foreigner,
jumping on a raft or a flying carpet), and the indices of retention are
almost null in the principal faculties. Also, the best professors we
once had are now retired, and others have taken the path of emigration
or have gone to more profitable jobs: working in hotels or tourism.

These points make it obvious that our educational system needs a radical
change; our movement proposes, above all, that education continue to be
an inalienable human right of greatest priority, and that the
educational process be thought-out in a universal way and that all the
information that humanity has generated be put within reach of all
students. We reject all the indoctrination, loyalties, myths and
personality cults.

For us, education will be a vehicle for the liberation and growth of
man, materially as well as spiritually, consumed from all sources,
taking as the base the spring of our nationality.

Another question is of the greatest importance: it's that young people
have less motivation to take university courses, which is
understandable: for them it means investing five years of their lives in
study without earning anything in order to later present their skills in
exchange for salaries that don't even cover basic necessities.

Now, faced with the dichotomy between Engineer or Culinary Worker, our
adolescents clearly know that serving in a restaurant brings them closer
to their daily bread than does a day designing bridges. Consequently,
there has been a considerable reduction in university graduations these
last years. This, added to the massive exodus of professionals, is,
short of alarming, an urgent call to action for the future of our country.

Our movement proposes, in the interest of minimizing the flight of
qualified personnel, that the remuneration for professors be in accord
with the importance of education in any society. This is a moral duty of
the Nation.

The Cuban Government hasn't been able to remain blind to the crisis of
higher education, and in one of its propaganda strategies, on September
6, 7 and 8 of 2015, it announced a series of "innovative measures."

In the next post about the subject, I'll expose the essence of these
measures and give my opinion about their effectiveness. I'll continue to
comment on some of the problems and will try to shed a little light on
the debate about the preparation of our youth to assume the challenge of
bringing clarity and growth to the new Cuba, which we seek, and the need
to include them in decisions about the future of education in our country.

Translated by Regina Anavy

Source: Higher education in Cuba: A Vision (Part 1) / Somos+ |
Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/higher-education-in-cuba-a-vision-part-1-somos/