← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · jesuisfier
Thread ID: 10225 | Posts: 2 | Started: 2003-10-03
2003-10-03 20:48 | User Profile
But Fidel, what good is it to be educated as a doctor or engineer but you have to work part-time as a rickshaw operator in order to feed your family in between State issued rations of milk and cheese?? Fidel says: Esta revolucion es eternal! What do you think? I say he's full of SH1T!
[SIZE=4]Fidel speaks: Cuba leads in education [/SIZE]
After El Diario-La Prensa refused this week to publish a column on education by Cuban President Fidel Castro - causing the editor of the Spanish-language daily to resign - the Daily News obtained the text. The following are excerpts.
By FIDEL CASTRO
In the field of education, Cuba is first in the world. Its grade school students rank first in math and language arts. One hundred percent of our children start school at the proper age and reach sixth grade. Ninety-nine percent of the students reach ninth grade, and all of them are eligible to attend school though the 12th grade. In elementary school, there is one teacher for every 20 students, or two if the class is larger. New schools for art, theater, dance and music can be found in all provincial capitals and the country's major cities. We have created two new educational television channels.
... Nationwide, the Educate Your Child program, in which families do schoolwork with their children, has made it possible for us to assist, institutionally and informally, 99.5% of children up to age 6. More than 100,000 aides are involved in instructing, assisting and supporting families. Of the children who finished preschool last year, 96.8% had reached an adequate level of basic skills development.
Computers have been introduced in our preschools, applying research that eliminates risk factors for use at this young age. In the past school year, 117,868 preschool children had access to computers. This school year, an additional 23,527 will benefit.
... Our special education program ensures that children with physical deficiencies or mental retardation receive attention. ... And we are testing and introducing new methods to make computers accessible to handicapped students: touch screens, talking computers, smart keyboards and scanners.
... In September 2001, we created an equivalency course for dropouts. During the last school year, nearly 100,000 people enrolled in this program - 64,488 in high school and 34,318 in college.
A total of 128,377 workers have returned to school. Of those, 38,103, or 30%, are paid to attend school, 4,786 work as teachers because of their high education level and the remaining 85,488 combine school and work.
This school year, more than 100,000 Cubans enrolled in higher education.
... What makes Cuba's 2003-04 school year historic is a major revolution in middle school education - one with global repercussions. ... When the changes are all in place, there will be one teacher for every 15 students, and the teacher will be responsible for the students' education, formation and mentoring from seventh through ninth grade. Ninety-five percent of middle school students will have double sessions. Television, video and computers will become essential educational components. We will dedicate almost twice as much time to computer sciences, and by the ninth grade, computers will be used in all subjects.
Eight countries have adopted Cuba's methods for teaching reading by radio and television. In a brief time, this movement could help eradicate the shameful figure of 860 million illiterate people and billions of semiliterate people in the Third World.
Cuba's name will go down in history for its contributions in education, culture and health during one of the most difficult periods mankind has ever known.
Blockaded by the only superpower and semi-blockaded by Europe, the Cuban revolution has not been defeated. One reason is that these two powers do not have - nor will they ever have - the human capital or the moral values to do what socialist Cuba has done.
Translation by Daily News editorial staff.
Originally published on October 3, 2003
[url]http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ideas_opinions/story/123013p-110512c.html[/url]
2003-10-12 02:05 | User Profile
Bullshit. Just because Michael Moore thinks Cuba is great does not make it so.
I know, I went there.
There is a racial caste system you'd not believe, with a white-looking ruling class, but then their lighter-colored people not of high ranks kept under the thumb of a sort of internal security/spook service, those are black. There are different license plate colors for different ranks of peoples' cars, housewives gossiping for hours in the middle of the street because there's no traffic, sorry-ass looking Cuban military all over the place alway, and a pervasive atmosphere of fear. Much like a "mixed" US neighborhood, but a bit more so. Most of the land lies fallow, and driving around the countryside, you see circles of buzzards, where some animal has died.
Come to think of it, wouldn't Castro look natural in peyot (Orthodox Tribe sidelocks) when you think about it?