- published: 15 Nov 2011
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Education in Cuba has been a highly ranked system for many years. The University of Havana was founded in 1727 and there are a number of other well-established colleges and universities. Following the 1959 revolution, the Castro government nationalized all educational institutions, and created a system operated entirely by the government. Strong ideological content is present, with the constitution stating that educational and cultural policy is based on Marxist ideology.
Education expenditures continue to receive high priority, as Cuba spends 10 percent of its central budget on education, compared with 4 percent in the United Kingdom and just 2 percent in the United States, according to Unesco.
The Spanish colonized Cuba until 1898 and left the country with an illiteracy rate of 63.9%. By the early 1900s Cuba’s had a strong educational system, but it was only attended by half of the country’s children. Schools were not accessible to the poorest Cubans and this resulted in a low literacy rate for the country compared to the city. Prior to 1959, of the Cubans over the age of 15 years, 22% were found to be illiterate and 60% of the country was found to be semi illiterate because many rural Cubans had a third-grade education or less. After the Cuban Revolution, the new government placed the reconstruction of the education system as a top priority. A list of five key objectives was devised and used to frame Cuba’s educational system. Elementary school became mandated and more importantly available for all children. Many children who lived in poverty were now able to acquire an education for free providing them with an opportunity that eluded them prior to the revolution.
Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, (i/ˈkjuːbə/; Spanish: República de Cuba, pronounced: [reˈpuβlika ðe ˈkuβa] (
listen)) is an island country in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city. To the north of Cuba lies the United States (140 km or 90 mi away) and the Bahamas, Mexico is to the west, the Cayman Islands and Jamaica are to the south, and Haiti and the Dominican Republic are to the southeast.
In 1492, Christopher Columbus landed on and claimed the island now occupied by Cuba, for the Kingdom of Spain. Cuba remained a territory of Spain until the Spanish–American War ended in 1898, and gained formal independence from the U.S. in 1902. A fragile democracy, increasingly dominated by radical politics eventually evolved, solidified by the Cuban Constitution of 1940, but was definitely quashed in 1952 by former president Fulgencio Batista, and an authoritarian regime was set up, intensifying and catalyzing already rampant corruption, political repression and crippling economic regulations.Batista was ousted in January 1959 by the July 26 movement, and a new administration under Fidel Castro established, which had by 1965 evolved into a single-party state under the revived Communist Party of Cuba, which holds power to date.
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