BY LISA MACDONALD
SYDNEY — “Human capital, the level of knowledge of our people, is
the most important type of capital in Cuba.” Otto Rivero Torres, Cuba's
minister for youth and the first secretary of the Union of Communist Youth,
outlined his government's radical new education plan to a meeting of more
than 50 students and staff at the University of NSW on April 18. The meeting
was organised by Resistance.
Rivero commented at length on the prospects for the Cuban Revolution's
survival and development in a world which “11 years ago became unipolar”
— a world dominated by one superpower, the United States, which has waged
a military, economic and ideological war against Cuba since its 1959 revolution.
It is a “battle of ideas”, Rivero said. “It is not enough that all children
are guaranteed an education in Cuba. We must do more if we are to strengthen
the two pillars of the battle of ideas: to give our people more knowledge
and to have as high a level of culture in society as possible.”
With this aim, last September Cuba launched a program to institute a
student-teacher ratio of 20:1 in all primary schools and 15:1 in secondary
schools. Cuba also aims to train all students in computer sciences and
to increase the proportion of young people attending university (currently
24%). Teachers will be trained to teach all subjects in the curriculum
and students will remain in the same student group over a number of years.
“There is an infinite amount people can learn if they are allowed to”,
Rivero said. “This is why we recently made studying a `job' in Cuba. We
have begun to pay unemployed people a wage to study, which is paid for
as long as necessary, until they can have a job”. In the last year, Cuba
managed to reduce its unemployment rate from 4.1% to 3.5%. This was despite
the economic difficulties created by Washington's 42-year blockade of the
country.
That evening, Rivero also spoke to more than 100 people at Trades Hall,
organised by the Australia-Cuba Friendship Society. The meeting was also
supported by Amigos de Cuba, the Democratic Socialist Party and other organisations.
He also addressed a 100-strong meeting in Melbourne on April 16.
Rivero did not present speeches to either meeting, but instead invited
the audience to ask “any question you want about Cuba”. The issues covered
included how Cuba has eliminated racism, Cuba's role in world politics
in the context of the US “war on terrorism”, the impact of the growing
tourism industry on young people in Cuba and the legacy of Che Guevara.
Rivero contrasted Cuba's economic situation with that of crisis-racked
Argentina. “We have the economic system we want”, he said. “The people
own the means of production and we owe nothing to the international financial
institutions. Look at Argentina: the financial powers gave them a lolly
and now the lolly has run out. In Cuba, we make our own lollies — and they're
very high quality lollies since we produce so much sugar!”
Asked about the future of the revolution when the leaders who are leading
it are no longer around, Rivero pointed out that the many social, political
and economic battles that have been fought since 1959 have created the
capacity for everyone in Cuba to work together for the common good.
“The revolution will move forward because decision-making is collective,
uniting all generations, and that can be seen in the desire of Cuba's young
people to continue to learn, work and struggle.”
From Green Left Weekly, April 24, 2002.
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