Cuban delegation briefing: Education system of the Cuban Revolution

Meeting report

Meeting with Cuban delegation
The Chairperson welcomed all guests and Members introduced themselves. The Cuban Ambassador, Mr A Villa, introduced Dr Aleida Guevara Marsh, medical doctor by profession and Camillo Guevara Marsh, a lawyer working in the Centre for Histories of Che Guevara and Cuba. Both were the children of Che Guevara.
Mr Fidelia Ricardo worked for The Institute of Friendship among the People, which was created after the revolution to link Cuba to the world and undertake solidarity work. Mr Joel Largo was the State Secretary of the Cuban Embassy, Pretoria, and other members of the delegation comprised members of the non-government organisation Friends of Cuba in South Africa, headed by the Secretary General, Mr Bheki Mvovo.

The Ambassador explained that every three years Cuba held an international congress, Universidad, on Higher Education in Cuba. He had invited the Minister and members of the Committee to the Universidad 2010. Similar invitations were also submitted to the rectors and professors of all South African universities. Universidad was supported by Unesco, and was normally attended by many participants from many nations. More information was posted on the websites: www.universidad2010.com and www.universidad2010.cu

The Chairperson said that although the Committee consisted of people with different political persuasions they were all convinced of Cuba's ability to deal with skills challenges. That was why this Committee took the liberty of inviting the delegation to share some experiences and knowledge. He also expressed a hope that some relationship between the Parliament of South Africa and the Parliament of Cuba could be formed, specifically when dealing with the skills issue. He said that the Committee and South Africans expressed their appreciation of Cuban society in Africa who had assisted in ensuring that Africa became emancipated.

Dr Aleida Guevara Marsh noted that she was a medical doctor who had also worked for the Cuban Institute for Friendship with the People, where she had noted much on the capacity to develop culture in Cuba. After the revolution in Cuba, one of the first tasks undertaken was a mass campaign to eliminate illiteracy, but this was not sufficient, and was followed by the next step of ensuring that everyone could continue their education and training, and gain access to culture. The mountainous terrain in much of Cuba made it difficult for some children to access schools, and so after the revolution many new schools were constructed, in those areas, to make education accessible to everybody. A large number of teachers had to be trained to run the schools. Fifty years after its Socialist Revolution, Cuba still had a lot of difficulty with this, because education did not stop, so it was important to develop this culture of responsibility to educate all the new generations, which would form the basis of any society.

Dr Guevara Marsh also noted that it was necessary to find a way to promote unity between the household and the school. At this moment there were new projects in the area of higher education, because there were a number of young people who were not able to study in their chosen fields. Although Cuba was an agricultural country not many people wanted to study agricultural engineering, but preferred to become doctors and lawyers. It was necessary to look at the capacities of the State, the needs of the country, the ability to train people, and the problems of where skills were needed. If people wanted to become economists and lawyers, there were extremely high academic standards set. Because many students were not able to meet those high demands, Cuba then created a new programme where academic staff would go out to communities, offering night classes, which had caused a whole new development in the education and culture in Cuba, and had also brought academic staff into contact with communities. All of this was very expensive to do, and Cuba was a so-called Third World country and had very little resources, but it was a fundamental objective of the government. She outlined the main principle as:” If you want to develop a country, you also need to develop the culture of the people of that country.” The government had to become owners, and pass on the benefits to all the Cuban people. This was the reason why Cuba, as a third world country with very little resources, could provide a very high standard of education, free to all the people of Cuba. At this stage Cuba also had a very important project that was aimed at other countries, trying to help those countries also to eliminate illiteracy. It was using the method  “Yo se phello” which meant “Yes I can”. This was offered in the languages of the indigenous people of the Americas, namely Spanish, Portuguese, Creole, Inguaranee and Ketchwa. The result was that Venezuela was now completely free of illiteracy and Bolivia was also on that same road. There were many things that could be done if countries united forces. South Africa could always count on the solidarity of the Cuban people.
 
Mr Camillo Guevara Marsh said that he had nothing further to add at this stage.

The Chairperson noted that the South African Anti-illiteracy campaign drew many features from the Venezuelan model, which in turn was based on the Cuban model. He said to the Ambassador that he believed that for every 165 families in Cuba there was one doctor. He noted that in Havana there was a Latin American School of Medicine, where a couple of hundred South Africans were studying medicine.

Dr W James (DA) said that he had done some work with Cuban biotechnologists, principally around the issue of food security and genetic modification. He asked Dr Guevara Marsh to comment on it for the benefit of the Committee, because he said that the quality of work done in Cuba was of an extraordinary standard. He also asked her to comment on the performing arts, asking how this was organized and how the school system fed into it. 
 
Dr Guevara Marsh responded that there were some very interesting developments in Cuba in the field of biotechnology. Cuba started with a very small research centre and today had eight large centres all over the country. The areas of research were very wide, but the two fundamental areas of focus were food security and medicine. At this moment Cuba was working on a new preventative vaccine for lung cancer. It was also working on a vaccine for AIDS, but it was very difficult. It was further working on new anti retroviral medicines, and there were many important developments that were expected to happen in these areas over the next few years. In the area of agriculture, Cuba was very interested in the area of genetic modification, and wanted to make sure it was done in a way that there was no harm done to human beings. It was also experimenting with fresh water fish, looking at ways to raise productivity levels in agriculture, and aiming to address the need to be self-sufficient in terms of food provision and food security.

In regard to the arts, Dr Guevara Marsh noted that the centres for artistic development were absolutely fundamental to the development of the people in Cuba, as should also be the case in South Africa. She commented that the National Choir in Cuba would take months in rehearsal to balance voices perfectly, and that it was amazing that in South Africa, in a matter of a few minutes, people could sing together and achieve perfect harmony and balance. She had not experienced this elsewhere and was enormously impressed. This talent could be used to develop culture in South Africa.

Dr Guevara Marsh said that when speaking earlier about education, she had mentioned that some youth fell behind because they were not studying in their chosen field. Many had trained to be directors of Arts Centres, working on development of the arts, and had undergone a three-year long training period in all the different areas of art and musical instruments, before going out to communities to work with children and development of the arts. Cuba was missing much of its indigenous history, as very little of the original culture remained. The mix of African and Spanish music did remain.

The Chairperson noted that one of the Heads of the Research Centres in Cuba had visited South Africa a while ago, being a members of the Council of the State, and had initiated a structural relationship with South Africa, facilitated through the Department of Science and Technology. Thus there were already attempts to build relationships and share knowledge and technology.

The Chairperson noted that the infection rate for HIV/AIDS in Cuba, according to United Nations statistics, was under 1%. Cuba also had one of the lowest infant mortality rates in the world and one of the highest life expectancy rates. It had a population of 11 million people. A recent medical technology development would address prevention of amputation for diabetes sufferers, 29% of whom currently had to undergo amputations, and would tend to die within about five years after that.

Mr M Mangena (ANC) expressed his regret at the long distance between South Africa and Cuba, as there was a lot that South Africans could learn from the Cuban experience. The investments made in terms of education, and  in developing their people, were having very positive consequences and benefits for Cuban society. Cuba had small schools, sometimes 15 learners to one teacher, as well as TV monitors on a network, so that they could learn together with everybody else. Another benefit was that every village had a doctor who was accessible, free of charge. All these things were possible because there had been a large investment by government in the development of their people. Another factor was the patriotism of the Cuban people, as the trained professionals were keen to serve their own people and country. The research at these institutions was directed at solving actual human problems. Cuba was taking out patents and recording its intellectual property. It was producing vaccines and medicines that would be of immediate relevance to children and sick people. He commented that even if South Africa had this level of knowledge, it had not developed the orientation to use it to serve society in the same way, and there was much to be learned from the Cuban people

Mr G Radebe (ANC) said that he found it most interesting that Cuba had managed to secure the skills to spread the literacy projects. His home provice of Mpumalanga had the potential to develop an agricultural and  biofuel industry , but the young people were not interested in this field and the institutions were not producing these skills. 

Ms F Mushwana (ANC) also commented on the fact that Cuba was helping other counties. She said that the ANC had a similar slogan:” Together we can do more”. She asked how Cuba could help South Africa to eliminate AIDS, as clearly the AIDS statistic of 1% infection showed that there must be good advice to be shared. She also commented that people were now sending their children to schools that were previously not accessible to those families, and the children would learn alien cultures, and she wondered how children could be encouraged to adopt the knowledge, but not the culture.

Dr Guevara Marsh answered that the most basic answer for all of this was “culture”. In Cuba, there was sex education for children in primary school. Cubans were descended from Spanish and African culture, both of which were patriarchal, and the only way to move away from that was through education and cultural development. Many HIV positive people worked as anti-AIDS activists in Cuban government programmes to educate the population about AIDS. It was very necessary also to instill respect and recognition that one can learn from all cultures. She recognised that sometimes it could be very difficult to adapt, and admitted to having herself lost patience with people from other cultures, but knew that it was important to be patient. She noted that when she visited a day hospital in Khayelitsha, she had enquired about delivery of babies, and was told that the nurses would ask their patients how they preferred to give birth, and stressed that it was important to listen to the people.

Mr G Lekgetho (ANC) referred to the many successes of the Cuban nation, including the sending of 11000 doctors to Venezuela to boost that country’s health system. He said that Cuba never lost anywhere that it  fought and asked what the secret was.

Dr Guevara Marsh said that there was no secret. Cuba owned its own resources, and invested in health and education. She commented that she had visited a diamond mine in South Africa, and had asked how much money was generated by the diamond industry. If all the money made in the industry was to go into private pockets, then obviously there would not be enough resources to fund whatever programmes were needed in education and health. Cuba owned what it produced. All the benefits came back to the people. All its energy went into the education of the people. One of Cuba’s 19th century thinkers said: ”People will only truly be free, when they are cultured” 
 
Mr Lekgetho said that he was humbled by these sentiments. Parliamentarians were now able to sit in parliament through the solid contribution of the Cuban people, highlighting Quito Quanavale and how that event contributed in the demise of apartheid. He asked how Cuba managed to give free high quality education to everybody.

Dr Guevara Marsh said that she was in Quito Cuanavale as a doctor. She was very proud of the Angolan people, who had been very courageous. She understood very well the feeling of the people. Fidel Castro taught the Cuban nation that not only were they Latin Americans, but they were Afro- Latin Americans. She said that one of her great-grandmothers had been African and that she was very proud of her African ancestry. Cubans felt that the African continent gave them life. Coming to Angola was returning a little of what was given to the Cuban nation by so many Africans on the African continent. This was the reason why Cuba had resolved to be part of Africa. Socialist solidarity meant that people would give from what they had, not what they had left over after attending to their wants, even if this meant that people must deprive themselves to give to others. She said that in Cuba, a child would die if it had an incurable disease or accident. In Angola, many children died of preventable or minor diseases because of lack of equipment and medicine, and this had been very upsetting, as she had learned to love the Angolan people.

She reiterated that South Africans could count on the Cuban nation.

The Chairperson thanked the Cuban Ambassador and delegation for bringing home the elementary principles of respect, wisdom, discipline, and protection of history. He said that further relations would be structured through the Minister of Higher Education and Training, Mr Blade Nzimande. He said that the visit had directed a focus on international solidarity. The Committee would look at how to continue building on this contact session.

The meeting was adjourned.