To brag about the achievements of our children and to crow about the good grades they got on a test are some of the pleasures that we can't forgo when the opportunity presents itself. June comes and we bump into a neighbor or a friend and the obligatory question is, "How is your child doing studying for the final exams?" The heat takes a backseat, and summer's apathy gains some mystery with the questions: Will they pass or fail? Will they be promoted to the next grade, or not? Long nights are spent solving math problems, the tutors can't keep up with so many students, and outside the schools they post the listings with the standings. The year-end vortex sucks us in... but this year there are several new features.
After testing one educational method after another, now several batches of students trained in these teaching "laboratories" have come to the university. I am referring to those who, from the first day of junior high school, faced those so-called "emerging teachers" at the blackboard; the same teenagers who, for years, received 60 percent of their classes through a television screen. My son is a good example of this. He benefited from the abandonment of the "high schools in the countryside" program -- excellent news -- but he suffered from the restructuring of the school program, plagued with misfits, lost hours, and the poor academic preparation of the educators. He has also been affected by the high desertion rates among the ranks of teachers whose salaries remain on the symbolic, if not the ridiculous, plane. Added to this is the presence -- excessive and continuous -- of an ideology that pervades even subjects and materials as far from the political spectrum as possible.
These winds are now bringing real storms. The lack of educational quality is bumping up against an increasing rigor in the final exams for high school. The result: entire schools where they are barely able to pass three or four students; complete groups who must cram and take the test second time, and even a third; parents on the edge of nervous collapse on learning that their "intelligent" child doesn't even know the Pythagorean theorem. To the lack of control comes the firm hand; the delirious educational system starts to see reason. But we're not talking about numbers here; it concerns young people whose learning has been far below what now appears on the test. People for whom volunteerism and school experimentation have been shown to fail.
Yoani's blog, Generation Y, can be read here in English translation.
Translating Cuba is a compilation blog with Yoani and other Cuban bloggers in English.
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The regime ruling class provides their children with a select education abroad that denies the much vaunted educational achievements of the Castroit regime.
One of the demonstrators expressed “I am not moving until the car is turned off” and denounces the oppressors for the assassinations of dissidents Wilman Villar Mendoza and Orlando Zapata Tamayo.
Perhaps if the camera were not filming this protest, the results would have been different. This method of non-cooperation has been used all over the world, from the civic protests during the 60′s for civil rights in the United States to Gandhi’s resistance movement in India and China’s Tiananmen Square protest.
http://youtu.be/tMGEYtVwcS8
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/martin-carnoy/are-cubas-schools-better_b_109280.html
That's why graduated of medicine in Cuba can't pass license tests in Brazil or Chile:
http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/health/2011/10/24/cuban-doctors-get-sickly-results-in-brazilian-medical-exams/
Teachers are struggling for surviving also, they can afford to buy soap or clothes with their $11/month salary. A pound of rice or beans is enough to waranty the final test pass to any student. That's the reason most cuban trying to get a license in Brazil, Chile or USA to work as doctors fails the tests.
no me importa
http://www.therealcuba.com/FreeEducation.htm
The photo is placed with all intention....... as regimes used to do, it means, to present elite's schools, hospitals and neighborhoods as common Cuban’s.
For your information and to correct your comment (white and red) with out a bandana is use from per-school to 1st grade. From secon to 4th they add a blue bandana to the white and red and from 4th to 6th the change the ble to a red bandana.
Then from 7th to 9th you use yellow and white with a red bandana. From 10th to 12th you use yellow and white with out bandana if you are in a school that allow you to go home every day, but if you are in a BecA in the interior of the cou try where you will be at school from Monday/Friday and go home only two weekends a month than you would use a blue uniform si out bandana. After 12 there is no more uniform.
This all he uniforms for all Cubans refardless who your father is.
privatization propaganda. Current test-based reform is destroying our schools day-by-day.
Believe it, because it's true.
Almost 80% of Chilean doctors with overseas degrees failed in 2011 the mandatory National medical knowledge Test, Eunacom, demanded to practice medicine in the country or have work opportunities at the government national health scheme.
Of the 477 hopefuls with foreign degrees that took the Eunacom test 376 failed. Most of them did their medical training in Cuba. The average point for these doctors was 38.84, well below the minimum floor demanded.
“This group of doctors are not authorized to practice medicine in Chile and besides the test will now have to revalidate their degree at the University of Chile” said Beltran Mean head of the Eunacom tests.
Regarding Chilean residents, the number of failed tests was down which means that out of 1.888 candidates only 38 didn’t make it, which is an improvement from the 78 failed in 2010. The average points for this group were 74.05.
Of all Chilean medical schools represented in the tests, residents from the Universidad Mayor showed the best annual performance since the school jumped in the ranking from position seven to second. University of Chile climbed from position six to three, while the Catholic University once again held the first post.
http://en.mercopress.com/2012/01/25/most-cuban-trained-doctors-fail-basic-test-to-practice-medicine-in-chile
You maybe are an illegal immigrant, then you are right, you have not right to insurance.
In the 1950s, there were 1,206 rural schools in Cuba and a system of mobile libraries with 180,000 volumes used predominantly in the rural areas. The total number of kindergartens and primary schools were 12,640, of which 900 were private schools (324 catholic schools).
Elementary education was compulsory for children between 6 and 14 years of age. By 1958 Cuba had 34,000 teachers in public schools and 3,500 in private schools educating a total of 1,346,800 students, of which 90,000 were in private school (68,000 enrolled in catholic schools). The public school system covered from kindergarten up to High School. There were also 171 high schools with an enrolment of 49,200 students, and 114 trade schools for technicians and professions, with a total of 38,430 students. All these schools were free. Another 165 private high schools had an enrollment of 36,280 students, for a total of 85,480 students in high school. The number of universities reached 6, 3 state universities and 3 privates. There were 25,000 students enrolled in the universities. The total number of students at all levels was 1,495,700.
No nation in the world should have to live with and American Gorilla around its neck!
Yoanni fails to put the blame on 50 years of Terrorism American Style!
ECONOMIC EYE ON CUBA- February 2012 - Report For Calendar Year 2011
2011-2001 U.S. EXPORT STATISTICS FOR CUBA
The following is the data for exports from the United States to the Republic of Cuba relating to the Trade Sanctions Reform and Export Enhancement Act (TSRA) of 2000, which re-authorized the direct commercial (on a cash basis) export of food products (including branded food products) and agricultural products (commodities) from the United States to the Republic of Cuba, irrespective of purpose. The TSRA does not include healthcare products, which remain authorized by the Cuban Democracy Act (CDA) of 1992.
The data represents the U.S. Dollar value of product exported from the United States to the Republic of Cuba under the auspice of TSRA. The data does not include transportation charges, bank charges, or other costs associated with exports from the United States to the Republic of Cuba. The government of the Republic of Cuba reports data that, according to the government of the Republic of Cuba, includes transportation charges, bank charges, and other costs. However, the government of the Republic of Cuba has not provided verifiable data. The use of trade data reported by the government of the Republic of Cuba is suspect. The government of the Republic of Cuba has been asked to provide verifiable data, but has not.
CLICK LINK FOR ENTIRE REPORT!
http://www.cubatrade.org/CubaExportStats.pdf
SECTOR EXTERNO / EXTERNAL SECTOR - 8.4 - Intercambio comercial de mercancías por países seleccionados y áreas geográficas (Conclusión) Trade in goods in selected countries and geographical areas (Conclusion)
Estados Unidos de América (USA)
2004 = $443,900,000
2005 = $476,311,000
2006 = $483,591,000
2007 = $581,657,000
2008 = $962,767,000
2009 = $675,420,000
http://www.one.cu/aec2009/esp/08_tabla_cuadro.htm
REUTERS: Cuba says U.S. climbs to 5th leading trade partner-HAVANA | Thu Aug 14, 2008
(Reuters) - The United States ranked among communist Cuba’s top five trading partners for the first time in 2007 despite the decades-old U.S. trade embargo, as U.S. agriculture sales increased by $100 million. Trade data for 2007 posted on the Web site of Cuba’s National Statistics Office (www.one.cu) placed the United States fifth at $582 million, compared with $484 million in 2006, including shipping costs.
The United States, which began selling food to Cuba in 2002 under an amendment to the embargo, placed seventh in 2006 and 2005.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2008/08/14/us-cuba-usa-trade-idUSN1447847620080814