Training
Cuba is the country in Latin America that has invested
most in education. About 13 percent of the state budget goes
to education, which is the highest in the world. The general
level of education has been raised step by step after the
1959 revolution. An extensive literacy campaign in 1961
largely eradicated illiteracy. At the same time, adult
schools were set up all over the country, not least in the
countryside. In the late 1980s, almost one-third of the
population studied full-time or half-time at various types
of educational institutions, from primary school, high
school to universities and other higher education
institutions.
According to Digopaul,
an important element of Cuban education policy is that
studies are to a large extent combined with practical
professional experience. This is mainly done in secondary
schools in rural areas. The teaching profession is of high
status and the country sends out many teachers annually to
make assistance efforts in other parts of the third world.
In the 1970s, the goal was set for all Cubans to have at
least six years of primary school. That goal was considered
to have been achieved by the end of the same decade. The
state's objectives have subsequently been gradually
increased, first to ensure that all Cubans have a general
education equivalent to at least nine years of compulsory
education. By the end of the 1980s, 82 percent of the
working population had reached this level, and 40 percent
had upper secondary education (12 years of study). About 12
percent then had university education or equivalent, which
was high numbers compared to other Latin American countries.
Prioritization of the education sector (along with the
health sector) has continued, although budgetary austerity
also hit the education sector in the 1990s following the
collapse of communism in Soviet and Eastern Europe. The
number of pupils, which rose record-breaking in the 1970s
and 1980s, dropped drastically in the 1990s. This is
especially true of university education, where the number of
students more than halved.
In 2016, 72 percent of Cuba's working population had at
least 12 years of education. The corresponding figure for
people with university education was 22 percent in the same
year. Simply put, it can be said that the country has a very
well-educated population. The level of education in the
country can compare with countries such as Sweden, England
and the US.
In 2001, the government began a new program, the
so-called universalization (Spanish la
universalización de la universidad) of the university.
This reform meant that university studies would spread to
the entire population. New university branches emerged and
between 2001–07 the number of students enrolled at the
universities and its branches increased from 145,000 to
744,000.
Since then, however, the number has dropped drastically
and was only 166,000 in 2016. This can partly be explained
by the fact that the quality of the education dropped and
that the reform proved to be very costly.
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