sábado, 23 de enero de 2016

Cuban Education in Free-fall

Cuban Education in Free-fall / Ivan Garcia
Posted on January 23, 2016

Ivan Garcia, 21 January 2016 — Seven in the morning on a weekday. After
a frugal breakfast of bread and mayonnaise and an instant powdered
drink, Yamilka Santana, fourteen years old, puts on her backpack,
weighing a little over 12 kilos.

She isn't going on a trip, nor is she going camping. She is going off to
her junior high school, Eugenio María de Hostos, in la Víbora district,
a thirty minute drive south of Havana.

"I am taking all my books and exercise books in my backpack, as we don't
yet have a timetable for our classes. There are about twenty notebooks.
Also, a snack, a lunchbox, and a sunshade. It looks as if I am going on
a journey abroad", Yamilka says, smiling.

About 350 pupils study in her school. They need to stay in school from
eight in the morning until twenty past four in the afternoon. The state
does not provide them with a school breakfast. Nor lunch.

It only gives them a snack, which most of the kids don't eat. "It's
rubbish. Bread and a hamburger, which has a strange taste, or horrible
potato croquettes. The bread is almost always hard and old. You have to
be really hungry to be able to eat it", says Melissa, a seventh grade
student.

The school patio where they line up in the morning is uneven. In a wide
area, previously used for sport, there are no basketball backboards and
the smooth-finish concrete surface is lifting.

When it rains, the water penetrates the walls and the roof. "You get
more rain inside than outside. When you get heavy downpours, they
suspend classes". says Josuán, from the ninth grade.

More than a few parents have complained to the school. "It's dangerous
for the kids. They haven't carried out any maintenance to the school for
years, and one day the roof or the walls could collapse and that would
be a tragedy. The government should be concerned about the bad state of
most schools in Cuba", says Magda, mother of one of the pupils.

But the complaints have had no effect. The government's response is to
paint the fronts of the schools with a coat of cheap paint. The teaching
materials are insufficient and are deteriorating.

"Ten-year-old books are passed between pupils. There aren't enough for
everyone. I share a book with two or three kids. The notebooks, pencils
and school supplies hardly last a term. Parents have to pay for the rest
of the things out of their own pockets", a teacher from Eugenio María de
Hostos tells us.

The first problem the parents and families of the children and young
people who are studying have to deal with is the uniform. In Cuba,
uniforms are compulsory up to pre-university and degree courses.

Every other year, the state sells two uniforms per student. "But they
screw you. They almost never have the right sizes. And you have to go to
the market, where they charge you 5 convertible pesos for a uniform,
which is equivalent to 125 Cuban pesos, five days' pay. Some families
get them, much better made, in Miami, explains Berta, mother of two.

In primary school, skirts, shorts and trousers are a wine colour, and
blouses and shirts are white. In secondary, mustard yellow with white
blouse or shirt. In preuniversity, blue. Technical education has ochre
coloured uniforms. Nursing and medicine students wear white blouses and
shirts and violet skirts and trousers.

Twenty six years ago, when Fidel Castro's Cuba was subsidised by the
Kremlin, public education in the island guaranteed snacks and lunches
for students.

Also, two uniforms a year, a pair of school shoes and sport shoes for
physical education. That was when a proud Castro repeated in his lengthy
speeches that Cuban education was among the best in the world.

Now, parents have to buy the sneakers and snacks, which accentuates
social differences.

"In spite of the fact that the school management asks families to avoid
any ostentation, there are clear inequalities. There are students who
come with sports shoes costing 100 CUC or more. Tablets, smartphones and
even first generation laptops. They also bring good snacks and lunches.
Others feel bad. With patched up tennis shoes and only eating bread and
oil", the director of a school tells us.

Up to the date of writing, no primary, secondary or pre-university in
Cuba has an internet connection, producing backwardness in the use of
information technology, which has a negative impact on the younger
generation.

"We have adolescents who arrive at school, never having used a computer
and never having surfed the internet. That is fatal in the 21st
century", comments Richard, a computing teacher.

But if the shortage of decent equipment and adequate food is notable in
Cuban schools, the free-fall in the quality of education worries parents
a lot. From their already battered domestic finances, they have to pay
for private tutoring by experienced teachers.

"I pay 4 CUC a week to the retired teacher who gives my daughter
tutoring, 16 convertible pesos a month, nearly half my salary. It's a
big sacrifice, but I do it not just so that my daughter gets good marks,
but also that she builds up her knowledge and will be able to take a
university course", says Magda, referring to a seventh-grade student.

The deterioration in the quality of public education in the island is
reflected in rude behaviour and in an alarming reduction in adolescents'
and young peoples' level of culture. They hardly read or learn at all.

"We have not yet caught up with the 21st century. If we keep going like
this, most of our current students will not be able to adapt to the
requirements of the modern world. We are twenty years behind in terms of
modern teaching methods", explains a retired female teacher.

Very few people in Cuba want to be teachers. Low salaries and poor
social standing are among the reasons. Many qualified teachers prefer to
work as porters in five star hotels, as taxi drivers, or making pizzas
in private restaurants. Or to emigrate.

Photo: from El País de Colombia.

Translated by GH

Source: Cuban Education in Free-fall / Ivan Garcia | Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/cuban-education-in-free-fall-ivan-garcia/

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