The Cuban educational process constitutes one of the fundamental pillars of the Revolution, in which the figure of the Commander in Chief has been and is a fundamental link.

Education is a fundamental right, established in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, International Covenants, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, among other treaties and international declarations.

Precisely, during Fidel Castro’s allegation of self-defense, on October 16, 1953, after the assaults on the Moncada and Carlos Manuel de Céspedes barracks, in Santiago de Cuba and Bayamo respectively, it was made public once and for all, the true and deplorable situation in the country, with about 2868 illiterate.

Since then, it constituted for our maximum leader, an evil to eradicate as soon as there was a revolutionary government with the support and respect of the people, through the integral reform of the education.

And so it happened in August 1960, when Fidel, during the graduation of the first contingent of volunteer teachers, announced the massive campaign to liquidate illiteracy in Cuba.

On January 1, 1961, when conditions were created, the literacy campaign was officially launched. Eleven months later, on the 22nd, Cuba was proclaimed free territory of illiteracy, with a reach of 707,000 Cubans and 25000 Haitians resident in the agricultural zones of East and Camagüey.

These antecedents definitively marked the takeoff of what is today the Cuban educational system, constituted for the full development of the human being and instituted by the State as a right and duty of all.

During the fruitful and arduous stage of revolutionary struggle, the historical leader of the Revolution prioritized education in the country, in addition to adding considerable contributions.

The proposals for educational transformations carried out by him and put into operation by the army of Cuban teachers, respond to the needs and demands of the historical moment, always supported by the pedagogical thought of José Martí.

It is undoubtedly then to say that the Cuban educational process constitutes one of the fundamental pillars of the Revolution, in which the figure of the Commander in Chief has been and is a fundamental link.

As a result, Cuba is now seen as a fundamental paradigm in the Latin American pedagogical task. Its fruits in the development of the global objectives of the millennium, in the universal extension of primary, basic education and the guarantee of the continuity of studies up to the university level of all the citizens, so it is evident.

The extension of the national experience in the field of Popular education in Latin America, is added to the achievements achieved in this area only possible, thanks to the strategic vision of Fidel and his conception that: “A better world is possible”.

Fidel’s contributions to Cuban Education

1.-His humanist conception, from the Marti Doctrine: «Being cults is the only way to be free» and «When coming to Earth every man has the right to be educated and then in payment to contribute to the education of others».

2.-The thesis of the Cuban Master’s duty as an educator par excellence of the society.

3.-The definition of the role and figure of the teacher in society, within the revolutionary process, as an ideological and political activist agglutinating the family, among other social factors, in the context of ideological struggle and aggression to which permanently, Cuba has been exposed.

4.-The conception of educating, as a complex process, multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary, which involved dissimilar factors and personal and social influences.

5.-The conception of the teacher as an instructor of children and adolescents in educational transformations in the midst of the universalization of education.

6.-The role of the family in moral education and ethical training.

7.-The importance of acquiring a general and integral culture, directly related to the ethical and moral formation of citizens.

8.-The importance of the formation of social workers, schools of improvement for young people and the universalization of higher education.

9.-The approach of the concept of revolution, with its respective methodological value in terms of education and pedagogy, since its assertions, contain a profound revolutionary and humanist conception of man in his character of social being, in his active interaction and Transforming with the medium, the people and with oneself.

Translated by Linet Acuña Quilez