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 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ Weekly, April 24, 2002.
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