World Bank Touts Cuba’s Communist Education as Exemplary

World Bank Touts Cuba's Communist Education as Exemplary
All the Better to Indoctrinate Students, Exiles Contend
PETER SACCO OCTOBER 9, 2014 AT 1:23 PM

A Cuban text book promotes loyalty to the regime: "It's Fidel! We shall
be happy. Long live Fidel!" (Karel Becerra)
According to a recent report published by the World Bank, Cuba is the
only country in Latin America and the Caribbean with a "high-performing"
education system.

The 360-page release, "Great Teachers: How to Raise Student Learning in
Latin America and the Caribbean," focuses on the challenges associated
with government education throughout the region, and offers analysis of
teaching and policy practices on a country-specific basis. Authors
Barbara Bruns and Javier Luque assert that the continued development of
Latin America and the Caribbean is largely contingent upon the
implementation of widespread education reform.

Amid rampant inefficiencies, from Argentina to Mexico, the
report consistently points to Cuba as an example of education done right
in the region.

"No Latin American school system, with the possible exception of Cuba,"
it reads, "has the high standards, strong academic talent, high or at
least adequate salaries, and high degree of professional autonomy that
characterizes the world's most effective education systems."

Education, but for What Purpose?

Such high praise for Cuba's education system has failed to impress
regime critics, some of whom have characterized it as misleading.

"There have undoubtedly been achievements in Cuban education, but at the
expense of how many millions of dollars?" asks Karel Becerra, a former
Cuban student and current Secretary of International Relations at the
NGO Independent and Democratic Cuba.

"From my personal experience," he says, "education in Cuba is less about
learning and more a 'system of indoctrination' beginning in first grade."

Cuba's education system has been state run since 1961, and is 100
percent paid for through taxation and regime funds. All teachers are
required to adhere to a state-mandated curriculum, which espouses the
nation's communist political beliefs. And any teacher or parent caught
teaching an alternative viewpoint may be found in violation of the "Code
for Children, Youth, and Family," and sentenced to jail time.

"The Cuban government has devoted enormous resources to promoting their
achievements and covering up their failures through the media," said
Becerra. "The World Bank report is an advertising gimmick that feeds
into false, misleading, and controlled data."

The World Bank Makes Its Case

This is not the first time the World Bank has praised the Cuban
education system. A 2003 report stated that "Cuba has become
internationally recognized for its achievements in the areas of
education and health."

Among the reasons for Cuba's touted success is the cultivation of a
quality corps of teachers, which the report considers the only one of
its kind in Latin America. Cuba is the only Latin-American nation, for
example, to require teachers to complete a five-year education program
at university prior to entering the classroom.

Prospective Cuban teachers dedicate 72 percent of this five-year
training period to actual in-school practice, an exercise
that requires teachers to be videotaped and critiqued by master teachers
throughout their training. For comparison, the report cites Mexico as
the country with the second most practice-based pedagogy in the region,
but still only 25 percent of the Cuban requirement.

According to the report, the rigorous Cuban teacher-training process
encourages educators to develop and deliver lessons themselves, while
receiving feedback that promotes reflection and self-improvement.
Prospective Cuban teachers are assigned a school during their second
year of study, a practice aimed at integrating pedagogical theory with
practical experience — a model the World Bank report calls "exemplary."

Of course, implementing such a tight education system comes at a cost.
Through the first decade of the 21st century, the Cuban government spent
an average of over 10 percent of its total annual budget on education,
the most of any country in the world.

Less Love for the Rest of Latin America

Far from the commendation offered to Cuba, the World Bank report
chastises the rest of Latin America for poorly planned education policy
and wasteful implementation. The authors point out that teachers in
Latin-American countries, with the exception of Chile, score lower in
test results than teachers in countries renowned for their high-quality
education systems, like South Korea, Canada, and Taiwan.

The report notes that throughout Latin America, 7 million primary school
teachers (kindergarten, elementary, and high school) constitute roughly
20 percent of the region's technical work force. However,
teachers remain notoriously underpaid.

Such compensation relegates teachers to a lower socioeconomic status
than comparable professional and technical workers. As a result,
teaching as a profession has failed to attract Latin America's best and
brightest professionals, who tend to choose more lucrative careers such
as engineering.

The report's authors assert that teaching positions in Latin America
tend to attract the lowest performing professionals on the job market.
In a 2006 evaluation of mathematical proficiency, 84 percent of
sixth-grade Peruvian math teachers scored below a sixth-grade level.
Colombian and Ecuadorian teachers weren't far behind.

Further, the World Bank raises the alarm that teachers often skip school
without notice, and only devote 65 percent of class time to actual
teaching — "the equivalent of wasting an entire day of instruction per
week."

Rosá María Payá, a Cuban exile and contributor with the PanAm Post, has
responded to this article. Read "Cuba's Days of Education Excellence
Have Come and Gone."

Fergus Hodgson and Alex Clark-Youngblood contributed to this article.

Source: World Bank Touts Cuba's Communist Education as Exemplary -
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