In Cuba students have to pay for “free” education with
spying for secret police
One of the most
misunderstood myths about the Castro’s regime is right for free education
guaranteed by the state. Although it sounds attractive it would be an act of
self-deception to believe that the illegitimate totalitarian state offers any
“rights” to its citizens.
The alignment of the Castro regime with Marxism
led to the political indoctrination that begins the child age. The children’s
day-care centers were founded as a Castroist version of kindergartens. The
membership in the “pioneer” movement which is a child and adolescent adaptation
of Communist youth is obligatory for the students of the primary and secondary
schools.
To leave no room for doubt about the
indoctrination of pioneers, the motto they must daily recite is: “Pioneers, for
Communism, we will be like Che!” For those who are still unfamiliar with facts,
Che is no other than the bloodthirsty Argentinean guerrilla Ernesto Guevara,
who shot thousands of Cubans in La Cabaña fortress in 1959, without judicial
trial or after expedited and rigged trials. Almost all children, with rare
exceptions, must become pioneers.
At upper secondary level, many students are
encouraged to join Cuba’s Communist Youth (UJC), which is the prelude to Cuba’s
Communist Party. The membership at the UJC is taken into account, when it comes
to being admitted to Cuban universities.
The government determines what studies and how
many places are offered in university classrooms, in accordance with the centralized
Marxist planning system. Consequently, a student might not study what he or she
wants, having to make do with something else.
In Cuba, there are many professionals, who specialize
in the most diverse non-professional activities. There are also technical
schools, in which I will not go deeper so as not to make this review
interminable.
The university students must automatically join
the Federation of University Students (FEU), one of the so-called “mass organizations”
that make up the society’s totalitarian control system. Here comes the Fidel
Castro’s phrase: “within the Revolution, everything; against
the Revolution, nothing”. Although, in theory, every student has the right to
study at the university, in practice only those who remain, or appear to be,
faithful to the Marxist ideology are admitted to universities. If a student has
ideas that do not subscribe to the “Revolution”, he or she may be expelled from
college and will have no other place to study.
To illustrate the latter, I bring up the case of
the student Karla María Pérez. The Central University of Las Villas (UCLV)
decided to expel her, even though Karla had obtained the only place of
journalism offered to her native province. Karla entered the university thanks
to her outstanding marks. She was a student of excellence, but she did not sympathize
with Marxism.
That poor 18-year-old girl had found an affinity
in the ideas of the dissident organization Somos+. This movement of peaceful
opposition is led by young Eliécer Ávila, who was also a brilliant student and
dared to call into question the system from a leadership position.
After Karla refused to be recruited as an
informant of the State Security, which is the regime’s body responsible for
repression of political activists, the FEU conducted a poll to determine
whether she should be expelled from the university. The vote yielded the result
of 8 out of 14 in favor of the expulsion. Karla was then expelled, despite her
high academic achievements. The young student will attempt to exhaust all
possible appeal options, but the prospects are not hopeful for her.
Many students and teachers have been expelled
from universities because the Cuban educational system attaches greater
importance to ideology than to the academic knowledge. Proponents of the
“Revolution”, or those who seem to accept it, are enjoying free education. But
those who do not sympathize with what is, in reality, a cruel military
dictatorship are being denied that right.
After Castro’s revolution triumphed in 1959,
there were numerous private schools at all levels of education in Cuba. Some
were very good but others not so. As in any underdeveloped country, the public-school
system had its shortcomings, especially in the remotest areas of the country
and the poorest neighborhoods of large cities.
In theory, everyone has the right to study at the university, in practice only those who remain, or appear to be, loyal to the Marxist ideology are admitted.
Before Castro occupied Cuba, there was a public
education system that guaranteed free and compulsory primary education. However,
resources were not available to cover the entire country and there were
children with no access to school. The figures vary depending on the sources,
but it was said that half a million children — about 7.7% of the Island’s
population — were not educated at all, whilst thousands of teachers were
unemployed.
Castro
state’s literacy and indoctrination campaign
In 1959, Castro’s government implemented a
nationwide project to build new classrooms, reconverting former military
barracks. It also created a contingent of 3,000 volunteer teachers, who were
sent to remote areas of the country.
In 1961, a national literacy campaign was
launched. Thousands of people, especially students, organized in the so-called
Conrado Benítez Brigades, were sent around the country to teach reading and
writing. According to the government statistics 985,000 people benefited from
this campaign. However, the objective of this operation was two-fold: the
alphabetizing of people was accompanied by the indoctrination in Marxism and
the cult of Fidel Castro’s personality.
At the beginning of 1961, the government decreed
the expropriation of private schools, and on June 6 a Law of Nationalization of
Education was promulgated. This law served as a legal basis for the Castro
regime to confiscate all of the country’s private schools, many of them
religious, and take full control over education. Many religious teachers were
arrested and later expelled from the country. From June to September 1961, Cuba
was purged out of virtually all of religious educators and priests.
In 1961, Fidel Castro openly made his revolution
a Marxist, which he had denied since his rise to power. On April 16 of 1961, on
the eve of the Bay of Pigs invasion by a brigade of anti-Castro Cubans in
exile, Castro boasted of having made a Socialist revolution under the noses of
North-Americans. On June 30th, he expressed a phrase that has marked Cuba’s
life ever since: “Within the Revolution, everything; against the Revolution,
nothing”. Finally, on December 1st, 1961, Castro accepted that he was
Marxist-Leninist and said he would be so until his last day in life.
Jorge
Ros – an engineer, and political analyst. He was born in Cuba and left his
country in his teenage years. He is an author of numerous articles on Cuba.
Perth Herald Tribune joined the campaign “My Weekly Denunciation Of
the Castro’s Dictatorship”, launched by the UNPACU, and the Forum for a
United America to raise awareness of the situation of the Cuban people
worldwide.
No hay comentarios.:
Publicar un comentario