Education in Cuba

Schools remained inaccessible to the poorest Cubans and this resulted in a low literacy-rate for rural areas compared to the cities.

[citation needed] After students passed the required entrance examination to their particular course of study, even attendance at the University of Havana was tuition-free,[according to whom?]

[citation needed] After the Cuban Revolution of 1958–1959, the new government ranked the reconstruction of the education system along Marxist ideological lines as a top priority.

[citation needed] Many children who lived in distant rural areas were now able to acquire an education provided them by visiting teachers.

[citation needed] By April 1959, 817 literacy centers were opened[11] and, to further reach out to all, teens and other volunteers were sent out to the countryside to teach their fellow Cubans how to read.

The Literacy Campaign served two purposes: In a short time Cuba's new government made vast changes to the education system, and by 2000, 97%[12] of Cubans aged 15 to 24 were literate.

[15] Students and volunteers went to rural areas to teach people to read and to provide information on current Cuban politics.

Separate but similar programs were set up for maids, offering schooling and job training along with free daycare and housing.

Cuba is one of the poorest countries in the region and lacks basic resources yet still leads Latin America in primary education in terms of standardized testing.

[22] According to the U.S. Department of State, "[a]n emphasis on ideological indoctrination permeates all levels of Cuban educational system, but is enforced unevenly.

[citation needed] The primary-school curriculum includes dance and gardening, lessons on health and hygiene, and Cuban revolutionary history.

[26] In 1999 a program was implemented to attract students to study medicine in Cuba from less privileged backgrounds in the United States, Britain and Latin American, Caribbean, and African nations.

[28] Cuba has also provided state subsidized education to foreign nationals under specific programs, including U.S. students who are trained as doctors at the Latin American School of Medicine.

The program provides for full scholarships, including accommodation, and its graduates are meant to return to the US to offer low-cost healthcare.