Important lessons from Havana
Havana’s education builds on cultural and national identity, parents’ involvement and multigrade schools
Cuban educationalist Tania Morales de l a Cruz, professor of education at the University of Matanzas, understands how the chasms between South Africa’s poor and rich have contributed to the educational crisis in this country.
In our country, teachers are equipped to teach multigrade, whether they end up working in this area or not.
Emphasis is also placed on TV lessons, which are used both at school and at home. The use of approaches aimed at the classroom as a whole, and not the individual grade, has been very fruitful. organised aimed at “celebrating excellence”.
But note, emphasis here isn’t so much on “competition” but on “emulation”, that is matching or going beyond “striking” and “remarkable”. First of all, it was through the unity of our nation that we could work together as one, to attain this high standard in education, but also in culture, in the arts, in health, in ecological protection ... The promotion of a shared, universal values system — human dignity, equality and a collective solidarity — was not only considered crucial to the formation of a new, integrated nation.
Conceived of and elevated by our national hero, José Martí (18531895), and taken up by our leadership, such processes were pivotal in the educational advancement of our children in the 20th century and beyond. Without a good, universal values system, our educational project would not have reached the heights it currently commands. Contemplate committing to the holistic development of all children in their respective abilities. This should include forming a cohesive social identity, without fastidious focus on individualism, particularism and, above all, materialism.
As our own experience shows, this should be prioritised on all levels of social life. Here our educational policy is closely linked to our cultural policy, where the cultural triumphs of other nations and societies are fully incorporated into our national programmes.
At the same time, we place high premium on our national traditions, of which, as you know, the African and Spanish are prominent.
But our major quest has been not so much to purely isolate or elevate and revere in individual cultures, but also to seek for and build on common premises.