According to UNESCO, Cuba is the only country in Latin America and the Caribbean to achieve all the measurable objectives of education. This is the conclusion the Global Monitoring Report on Education for All in 2015, UNESCO (UNESCO). The document is based on the framework of action proposed in 2000 at the World Education Forum in Dakar when governments from 164 countries committed themselves to goals as early childhood care, universal primary education, adult literacy and parity and gender equality. Only half of the countries in the world and Latin America achieved the goal of universal access to primary education. In Cuba, it is noble to be a teacher. In Cuba teachers are valued unlike Brazil. Cuban teachers earn salaries similar to those of doctors. It should be noted that Cuba is also a place where those who have good grades will have access to education regardless of origin or family income. But how do the comparison of Cuba with other countries if it does not have international indicators? Today, it is not possible to know whether a university in Cuba is better or worse than a Brazilian institution, the US or even China because Cuba does not participate in international databases and not of university rankings.

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THE EDUCATION SYSTEM IN CUBA
Fernando Alcoforado *
Based on the information available on the websites
<https://educuba.wordpress.com/sintese/>,
<http://www.rimed.cu/generales/ensenanzas.asp> and <http: //www.cubagob.cu /,
captured>, were obtained the information about the Cuban education system described
in the following paragraphs:
The Cuban education system is designed as an organically articulated set of subsystems
at all levels and types of education. The subsystems that make up the national education
system structure are as follows: 1) Pre-school education; 2) Primary General and
Special Education until the 6th grade; 3) General Secondary and Pre-university
Education until the 12th grade or technical and job training with an equivalent level; 4)
Higher Education; and, 5) Postgraduate Education. The Ministry of Education is the
body responsible for directing and implementing state policy in the early levels, while
the Ministry of Higher Education on the fourth and fifth levels. Education in Cuba is
state-owned and free.
The education system in Cuba has a very important link with the society as well as with
families, taking as the main objective education and training of young people as citizens
and professionally. The knowledge, skills and teachers' skills are frequently updated.
The school, as an educational work center, organizes these activities, creating think
tanks. This also happens outside of school, namely the different community institutions
in extracurricular schedules.
Pre-school education in Cuba is geared for children 0-5 years. Children's circles were
created in 1961 (formal institutions), in order to enable the woman to their incorporation
in the labor market, ensuring the education of their children. In these circles, the
children are received from 45 days old to 5 years. The Children's circles involve adults
responsible who receive professional guidance which are generally family members
who do not work.
Primary general education is the basis of basic education being compulsory and
universal, with benefit to all boys and girls comprising the age group between 6 and 11
years. In Cuba, children who enter primary school have attended preschool. Basic
education aims to contribute to the formation of comprehensive school aiming to
encourage, motivate and internalize from the beginning the desire to learn and to know.
Primary education is grouped into two phases: one, from first to fourth grade, and
another that includes the fifth and sixth grades. In the first cycle are taught basic
knowledge of instrumental subjects, Spanish Language and Mathematics as well as
provide basics related to nature and society. At this stage also held physical education
activities, labor and aesthetics, contributing to multilateral training of students. In the
second cycle continues to develop the skills that began in the first degree and are
introduced new subjects such as History and Geography of Cuba, Natural Sciences and
Civic. Special education in Cuba serves students with delayed mental development,
hearing impaired, blind, weak, strabismus, autism, depression, physical and motor
limitations and conduct disorders, among other deficiencies.
The secondary general education incorporates students between 12 and 14 years and is
part of compulsory education with primary education. It aims to provide a basic and

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integral education to the Cuban teenager, on the basis of a general education, to enable
it to be fully identified with their nationality and patriotism, to know and understand his
past, face the present and prepare for its future development, with the conscious attitude
of socialism option that guarantees the defense of the social achievements in continuity
of the Revolution expressed in their ways of feeling of thinking and acting.
The teacher of medium school should lead the process of teaching and learning with
active methodologies conducive to dialogue, reflection and promote the exercise of
thinking, to teach his students learn to learn, learn to study and to process information of
research of joint projects in order to facilitate the exercise of its discretionary power, the
satisfaction to learn and to know. The classroom should be a real workshop of building
knowledge creation, hard work and respect for the experiences. The teacher should use
a respectful pedagogy and effort so that students have confidence in himself, has not
affected their self-esteem and can face life with optimism.
The pre-university education is directed to develop a general culture, politics and pre-
professional based on the principle of Jose Marti of work-study, which assures the
protagonist and unconditional participation in the construction project and the Cuban
socialist defense and choice of continuing education. The higher education system in
Cuba guarantees the university education to all students who complete the twelfth
degree or equivalent level and perform the corresponding entrance examinations. The
Postgraduate Education is the highest level of the National Education System and have
as main objectives the academic training of graduate and raising the professional
competence and to increase the productivity, efficiency and quality of work.
The Postgraduate Education is made up of two possibilities of work: The Overcoming
Professional and the Education of Postgraduate. The Overcoming Professional enables
college graduates the acquisition, expansion and continuous improvement of knowledge
and basic and specialized skills required to maintain and enhance their professional
competence. The Education Postgraduate aims the formation of a high professional
competence and advanced capabilities for scientific research, technical and humanistic,
which is recognized with an official title (Specialization and Master) or a scientific
degree (Doctor of Specific Science or Doctor of Science).
According to UNESCO, Cuba is the only country in Latin America and the Caribbean
to achieve all the measurable objectives of education. This is the conclusion of the
Global Monitoring Report on Education for All in 2015, of UNESCO. The document is
based on the framework of action proposed in 2000 at the World Education Forum in
Dakar when governments from 164 countries committed themselves to goals as early
childhood care, universal primary education, adult literacy and adult parity and gender
equality [ See article Só Cuba atinge objetivosglobais de educação na América Latina, dizUnesco
(Only Cuba reaches global education goals in Latin America, says Unesco) available on
the website <http://educacao.uol.com.br/noticias/2015/04/08/so-cuba-atinge-objetivos-
globais-de-educacao-na-america-latina-diz-unesco.htm>]. Only half of the countries in
the world and Latin America achieved the goal of universal access to primary education.
Ecuador, Chile, Peru and Mexico were the only ones in the region to pass the rate of
80% of children enrolled in pre-primary education.
It should be noted that Cuba does not participate in OCDE international education tests
assessment as PISA which assesses students in elementary and secondary education and
THE (Times Higher Education) that evaluates the performance of college students and
academic production among others. At PISA, it is known that education in Brazil is

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very bad and the Scandinavian countries, especially Finland, and Eastern countries such
as Japan and South Korea have increasingly better indicators. Except for the evaluation
carried out by UNESCO, there aren´t international reviews of the Cuban education
system. So you cannot compare it with other countries.
One aspect is important to highlight. In Cuba, it is noble to be a teacher. In Cuba
teachers are valued unlike Brazil. Cuban teachers earn salaries similar to those of
doctors. It should be noted that Cuba is also a place where those who have good grades
will have access to education regardless of origin or family income. But how do the
comparison of Cuba with other countries if it does not have international indicators?
Today, it is not possible to know whether a university in Cuba is better or worse than a
Brazilian institution, the US or even China because Cuba does not participate in
international databases and not of university rankings.
* Fernando Alcoforado, 75, membro da Academia Baiana de Educação, engenheiro e doutor em
Planejamento Territorial e Desenvolvimento Regional pela Universidade de Barcelona, professor
universitário e consultor nas áreas de planejamento estratégico, planejamento empresarial, planejamento
regional e planejamento de sistemas energéticos, é autor dos livros Globalização (Editora Nobel, São
Paulo, 1997), De Collor a FHC- O Brasil e a Nova (Des)ordem Mundial (Editora Nobel, São Paulo,
1998), Um Projeto para o Brasil (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 2000), Os condicionantes do
desenvolvimento do Estado da Bahia (Tese de doutorado. Universidade de Barcelona,
http://www.tesisenred.net/handle/10803/1944, 2003), Globalização e Desenvolvimento (Editora Nobel,
São Paulo, 2006), Bahia- Desenvolvimento do Século XVI ao Século XX e Objetivos Estratégicos na Era
Contemporânea (EGBA, Salvador, 2008), The Necessary Conditions of the Economic and Social
Development- The Case of the State of Bahia (VDM Verlag Dr. Müller Aktiengesellschaft & Co. KG,
Saarbrücken, Germany, 2010), Aquecimento Global e Catástrofe Planetária (P&A Gráfica e Editora,
Salvador, 2010), Amazônia Sustentável- Para o progresso do Brasil e combate ao aquecimento global
(Viena- Editora e Gráfica, Santa Cruz do Rio Pardo, São Paulo, 2011), Os Fatores Condicionantes do
Desenvolvimento Econômico e Social (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2012) e Energia no Mundo e no Brasil-
Energia e Mudança Climática Catastrófica no Século XXI (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2015).