THE CUBAN EDUCATIONAL ASSISTANCE PROGRAM: AN INVESTMENT IN THE THIRD WORLD

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Approved For Release 2008/04/07 :CIA-RDP84S00558R000500100004-5 Secret The Cuban Educational Assistance Program: An Investment in the Third World Secret G/ 83-l0l87S August 1983 Copv ~ n Approved For Release 2008/04/07 :CIA-RDP84S00558R000500100004-5 Approved For Release 2008/04/07 :CIA-RDP84S00558R000500100004-5 Approved For Release 2008/04/07 :CIA-RDP84S00558R000500100004-5 Approved For Release 2008/04/07 :CIA-RDP84S00558R000500100004-5 Secret The Cuban Educational Assistance Program: An Investment in the Third World Secret ci s.~-io~8~s August 1983 Approved For Release 2008/04/07 :CIA-RDP84S00558R000500100004-5 Approved For Release 2008/04/07 :CIA-RDP84S00558R000500100004-5 Secret Summary /rtjormation available as of !5 July /983 was used in this report. the Third World The Cuban Educational Assistance Program: An Investment in benefits, if only indirectly, without having to become involved. The education of Third World students has become an increasingly important element of Cuban foreign policy over the past five years. Havana uses its educational programs both to further Marxist ideology and to deepen its influence in the Third World through the development of a cadre of individuals who are sympathetic to Cuban aims and who can further Cuban interests. The USSR and East European countries provide their tacit support by awarding Cuban scholarships to LDC students through the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance. Cuban educational assistance complements other Communist training programs, and Moscow ty educational systems. Our estimate, ~is that more than 50,000 student~`rom 80 countries have traveled to Cuba for schooling since the early 1960s. More than two-thirds of the total have arrived since the mid-1970s, and one-half are enrolled now. Cuban education programs are: ? Highly focused. Three-fourths of the foreign students training in Cuba in 1982 were from four Marxist countries-Angola, Mozambique, Ethio- pia, and Nicaragua. ? Oriented toward youth. More than half of the foreign students enrolled in 1982 were of high school age or younger. ? Concentrated on the Third World. Students from developing countries make up 3.5 percent of university students in Cuba and 1 percent of total primary, secondary, and university enrollments, a significantly higher percentage than in other Communist countries. ? Aimed at students abroad as well as in Cuba. We estimate, on the basis of numerous sources, that Havana has some 5,000 teachers in 17 countries organizing and working in elementary, secondary, and universi- according to official Cuban figures. The financial burden on Cuba of administering these programs is small, and Havana may actually be earning a profit on some parts of the programs, such as receiving hard currency payments for sending teachers abroad. Even though Cuba's all-expense scholarships include room and board, tuition, and medical expenses, the home country pays for transpor- tation-the only associated hard currency expenditure. Havana budgets the peso equivalent of about $10 million annually to train foreigners, Secret G/ 83-101875 August 1983 25X1 25X1 Approved For Release 2008/04/07 :CIA-RDP84S00558R000500100004-5 Approved For Release 2008/04/07 :CIA-RDP84S00558R000500100004-5 The low cost, the excellent potential payoffs in maintaining and furthering influence in target countries, and the personal interest of Fidel Castro in training students from the Third World suggests significant future growth of Cuban educational assistance. Cuba is allocating larger number of university scholarships to its Caribbean neighbors, while maintaining awards to other recipients at previous levels. Cuban officials consider cultural and educational exchanges among the best tools to cultivate ties with non-Communist countries Approved For Release 2008/04/07 :CIA-RDP84S00558R000500100004-5 Approved For Release 2008/04/07 :CIA-RDP84S00558R000500100004-5 Contents Secret t'. Summary ii i Introduction 1 The Schools 1 The Isle of Youth 1 ti The Political Schools 2 The Universities 3 The Technical Schools 5 Approved For Release 2008/04/07 :CIA-RDP84S00558R000500100004-5 Approved For Release 2008/04/07 :CIA-RDP84S00558R000500100004-5 Figure 1 Students Studying in Cuba From Less Developed Countries (LDCs) in 1982 Waste ~~ Cuba Dominican Sahs {{epubliC Anbaua antl Barbuda Cap! Brae? ElaSalvador ?.V. (SOUK Yuman) - Motambi e Namlbfa bwe ~-s ~~ ;Mauritius 6 I ~ dagascar $fl Lanka 01,000 or more " Less than 1,000 Boundary represen)ation ie nor necessarily authoritative. Approved For Release 2008/04/07 :CIA-RDP84S00558R000500100004-5 Approved For Release 2008/04/07 :CIA-RDP84S00558R000500100004-5 Secret The Cuban Educational Assistance Program: An Investment in the Third World Introduction ' Over the last decade Cuba has developed an academic and technical training program for LDC students that is among the most active in the Communist world. We have not observed Moscow guiding the program, but by its nature and structure the Cuban effort comple- ments other Communist training programs and fos- ters Soviet as well as Cuban foreign policy objectives. Havana often accepts students who would not receive a scholarship in the USSR or Eastern Europe because of poor educational backgrounds. In addition, Cuba had access to a large pool of candidates in Latin America who are more willing to travel to Cuba than to the USSR. Moscow's own program has not been well accepted in Latin America for the most part, and many Soviet scholarships go begging every year. As enunciated by Fidel Castro himself, the Cuban program has two goals: ? To further Communist international aims in the Third World by creating aCuban-trained cadre capable of governing in Marxist LDCs or able to work for political change in non-Marxist LDCs. ? To create opportunities for an expansion of Cuban influence within individual countries for the long term through a pool of Cuban-trained specialists who can be used to serve Cuban political, economic, or strategic interests. The program has grown sharply during the last five years. We estimate that Havana is currently training some 27,000 students from more than 70 Third World countries. We estimate that as recently as 1975 there were no more than 5,000 to 10,000 foreign students in Cuba. Cuba also has 5,000 teachers abroad in 17 ' This Research Paper focuses on Cuban assistance programs and does not include military training. Estimates about the education students and scholarship offers and acceptances. Little information is available on the program's early years, limiting comparisons with data that became available as the program expanded in the mid- countries who have reached an additional 400,000 students. We do not expect the full impact of the program to be felt until large numbers of students begin returning home during the next few years. The Schools Cuba has more than 90 academic facilities open to foreign students. Students in primary and high school grades are trained on the Isle of Youth, while most foreign post-secondary-level students attend party schools, schools run by political organizations, Cuban universities (especially the University of Havana), and technical schools run by functional government minis- tries, such as Construction and Public Health.~~ 25X1 The Isle o,/'Youth. Cuba trains foreign elementary and high school students at its Isle of Youth facility 48 kilometers south of the Cuban mainland. No other country offers such an extensive program of official scholarships for primary and high school students. Havana has turned the Isle of Youth into a showcase for Cuba's educational system, in part through the labor of the foreign students themselves. there are 23 schools for foreigners on the Isle of Youth with an enrollment of almost 14,000 students from 12 developing countries (sec table 1), as well as 36 schools housing 18,000 Cuban students. Students are grouped by nationality in separate schools, which are governed by a Directing Council that includes Cubans as well as foreigners, a home country committee of the party's youth arm, and an administrative section that includes represent- atives of the Cuban Communist Party. Students from African Marxist states are a majority of the foreign student population on the Isle of Youth, as they have been since the program's inception in 1977. Several thousand students from Angola, Ethio- pia, Mozambique, and Namibia have been accepted 25X1 25X1 ,,25X1 L~~ I Approved For Release 2008/04/07 :CIA-RDP84S00558R000500100004-5 Approved For Release 2008/04/07 :CIA-RDP84S00558R000500100004-5 Table 1 Students from LDCs on the Isle of Youth, 1982 a Total 13,720 North Africa 570 Western Sahara (Polisario) 570 Sub-Saharan Africa 10,760 Angola 2,400 Congo 600 Ethiopia 3,400 Ghana -- 600 - - --_ Guinea-Bissau 120 Mozambique ... _ _.__..._.. 2,400 . Namibia 1.195 Sao Tome and Principe -_ 25 South Africa (African National Congress) 20 Latin America 1,790 Nicaragua 1,790 Middle East 600 South Yemen 600 for training at the site over the years, and most are still studying there. In 1982, it was announced that the first Ghanaian pupils (600) would travel to the island for their education. Nicaragua-in a program that began within a month of the Sandinista take- over has the only contingent on the Isle of Youth from Latin America or the Caribbean, and this group now numbers over 1,500 students. The curriculum on the island is rigorous and regi- mented. Cuba accepts foreign children as young as nine years old for primary and secondary schooling oriented toward vocational skills. Only the most prom- ising candidates are accepted for such training. Once chosen, the student can expect to spend five days a week in training-six hours a day in classes and three and a half hours at physical labor. Students wear uniforms at all times and march to and from classes. They study secondary school subjects such as history, mathematics, science, Spanish, English, and chemis- try as well as courses in carpentry, painting, plumb- ing, bricklaying, and other specialties. Students spend three to four years on the Island of Youth, and some move directly into Cuban universities or technical institutes, spending a decade or more in the Cuban educational system. The Isle of Youth program has several characteristics that have helped it avoid the pitfalls of many other training programs for LDC personnel: ? Grouping students by nationality has overcome many of the adjustment problems encountered by students in a foreign country. ? Drawing about one-fourth of the teaching staff at each school from the students' homeland to teach cultural and historical subjects. The Cuban training program also enjoys an advan- tage in that the climate is similar to that in most of the students' homelands, an important consideration in a successful training effort. For example, many students from tropical countries have discontinued their education in Moscow because of the severe winters. Most national groups are well disciplined, but the international press has reported occasional rebellions against the harsh regimen, forced labor, and poor food. In the past two years, several hundred students have been expelled for misbehavior, and others have been recalled by their home governments. Cuban press accounts indicate that Angolans have been especially troublesome, destroying a school and some citrus groves last year during riots which involved up to 300 students. These kinds of incidents may have made recruitment somewhat more difficult for the Cubans as reports filter back about the hard work and production quotas on the island. The Political Schools. We estimate that about 500 foreign students receive comprehensive schooling at the Cuban Communist Party schools in active meas- ures-propaganda, political agitation, intelligence, and covert action. They are enrolled at the Nico Lopez National Party School, the Julio Antonio Mella School of the Young Communists League, or 25X1 25X1 Approved For Release 2008/04/07 :CIA-RDP84S00558R000500100004-5 Approved For Release 2008/04/07 :CIA-RDP84S00558R000500100004-5 Secret one of four cadre schools run by the mass organiza- tions.z Courses run from two weeks to two years; instruction is given in a broad range of subjects with emphasis on ideology, economics, propaganda, jour- nalism, and organization of political groups and mass Figure 2 Cuba: Composition of Foreign Student Body, by Specialty organizations. The Nico Lopez School, the most advanced and prestigious party training school in Cuba, accepts the elite among Cuban and foreign candidates. we estimate that about 100 places at the school are reserved for foreign nationals. Founded in 1970 and directly administered by the party Central Committee, the school offers atwo-year program that provides the highest level of party training and afour-year university type program. political trainees receive far more favorable treatment than students in nonpolitical disciplines. We have been unable to ascertain the extent of these benefits, but presumably these students receive more money, cloth- ing, and privileges. Students enrolled in political-oriented programs are on scholarships provided by the Cuban Communist Party to foreign Communist or leftist parties. Occa- sionally funding is arranged through the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (CEMA), the Soviet-led Communist economic organization. The typical for- eign political trainee is affiliated with a domestic Communist or a leftist party and has been chosen for potential and ability. World were enrolled in Cuban universities in 1982 Marxist developing countries such as Angola, Ethio- pia, Mozambique, and Nicaragua (see table 2). Foreign students attend all of Cuba's four major universities, but more than three-fourths are at the University of Havana. =The Lazaro Pena Trade Union School of the Central Organization of Trade Unions, the Fe de Valle School of the Cuban Women's Federation, the Niceto Perez School of the National Association of Small Farmowners, and the School of the Committee for the whole (figure 2). Courses of study in Cuba resemble those in the same fields at universities in other countries with the addition of political indoctrination and requirements for physical labor. While the Cuban press has referred to university scholarships in more than 190 special- ties, programs generally emphasize skills that can be put to immediate use in a Third World country. The distribution of foreign students by specialties is simi- lar to that found in the Cuban university system as a The course of study usually runs for four to six years, often including a year of preparatory and language studies to provide a uniform educational base for students from divergent backgrounds and to integrate them into Cuban university life. Open sources indi- cate that to graduate, a university student must spend 4,000 to 5,000 hours in classes, and participate in Approved For Release 2008/04/07 :CIA-RDP84S00558R000500100004-5 Approved For Release 2008/04/07 :CIA-RDP84S00558R000500100004-5 Table 2 Cuba: LDC Academic and Technical Students in Cuba, 1982 a __ Total _ 13,010 Numb _ _ -_ er of persons North Africa 115 Latin America (continued) Algeria -- 5 _ - Belize 3p Libya 100 Bolivia 10 Morocco 5 -_ Brazil 5 -['unisia 5 __ Colombia ____ 10 Sub-Saharan Africa ---- 7,235 __ Costa Rica 5 Angola 2,800 __ Dominica 25 .-Benin 40 -- __ Dominican Republic 5 Botswana 15 Ecuador 9 Burundi -- - 15 Grenada ____ 330 Cameroon --_._ 5 _.. Guatemala 5 Cape Verde 50 Guyana 200 Congo 145 _- -- Haiti 5 Equatorial Guinea 15 Honduras lp Ethiopia 900 Jamaica 190 ___ -_-_ - - Gambia, The - -- 30 Mexico - - 20 Ghana 40 - Nicaragua 4,020 Guinea - 300 Panama - - --- 50 Guinea-Bissau 60 Peru 10 Madagascar ___ 30 _ St. Lucia 30 Mali 5 St. Vincent 20 Mauritius 5 Suriname 20 Mozambique 1,700 Uruguay 15 Nigeria 125 Venezuela 10 Rwanda 40 Middle East qg0 Seychelles --- 20 -- Jordan 1 p Sierra Leone 10 Lebanon 20 Sudan 5 North Yemen 5 Tanzania 500 PLO 400 Uganda 200 _- _-_ ___ South Yemen _ 20 Zambia - 40 __- - Syria - 25 Zimbabwe -- 140 -- South Asia -- 115 Europe 15 _- - Afghanistan 85 Malta __ 5 Bangladesh 5 Portugal 5 India --- 10 Spain 5 Nepal 5 Latin America -- 5,050 Pakistan 5 Antigua 10 _ -- __ Sri Lanka 5 Argentina -- - 10 Excludes students attending courses with durations of less than six months. Numbers are rounded to nearest 5. Approved For Release 2008/04/07 :CIA-RDP84S00558R000500100004-5 Approved For Release 2008/04/07 :CIA-RDP84S00558R000500100004-5 Secret 1,000 hours of physical labor at factories, farms, or other productive facilities associated with the univer- sities. Once a student has completed the necessary coursework and practical training, he receives a licen- ciado degree. Several years of further study earn a doctorate degree; there is no intermediate degree equivalent to the US masters degree. The Technical Schools. Cuba's technical schools ac- cept about 6,000 students from the Third World every year. Most of the courses are four years in duration, and the most popular ones for foreign personnel are in engineering, construction, and agriculture. Like Cu- ban universities, these schools require a high school diploma for entry. Some LDC trainees continue on into technical cadre training school upon completion of their courses. If a student has shown above average potential, he may be enrolled in an industrial cadre school. These facilities train personnel for managerial roles in their respective technical fields. Cuban Training: A Political Experience Cuban education is highly politicized-as is the case in other Marxist countries-and foreign students are exposed to the same indoctrination as domestic chil- dren. The Cuban press repeatedly has pointed out that the role of education should be "to train highly qualified professionals capable of organizing, develop- ing, and guiding the economy, science, and culture based on Marxist-Leninist principles and a genuine proletarian spirit." Educational policy in Cuba is subject to rigid central planning. The Ministers of Education (MINED) and Higher Education (MES) are members of the Communist Party Central Com- mittee. The pervasiveness of the Communist Party in educa- tion guarantees that students at all levels are steeped in Marxist-Leninist theory. Students in social sciences receive the heaviest doses of ideological train- ing. at Havana University both foreign and Cuban students study Marxist-Leninist ideology during the first year; in the second year, political application of Communist the- ory; and in the third and fourth years, worker organi- zation and participation. The study of military affairs is compulsory in some programs; for example, a doctor of medicine degree requires 400 hours of military training, and nearly one-fifth of the Table 3 Political Course Requirements for a Cuban Doctor of Medicine Degree Scholarships and Recruitment Foreign students in Cuba generally receive full schol- arships that include small monthly stipends for uni- versity and party school undergraduates and about 10 pesos a month for Isle of Youth students, according to open literature In addition, Cuba provides all foreign students with free tuition and medical care, educational materials, cloth- ing, and transportation within Cuba. The home gov- ernment or the sponsoring party is usually responsible for transportation to and from Cuba Scholarships are awarded by the Ministry of Education, the Communist Party, and special interest groups such as trade unions, women's groups, and industrial ministries. CEMA organiza- tions also fund some university scholarships. Study is formally open to students who have met the following requirements, although in practice the Cu- bans are lenient about admission standards: 25X1 25X1 25X1 25X1 ? For undergraduate courses, applicants must have 25X1 completed a secondary school education. ? For cadre training, applicants must belong to a leftist (preferably Communist) party and must be sponsored by the Cuban Communist Party, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, or an East European Communist party. Approved For Release 2008/04/07 :CIA-RDP84S00558R000500100004-5 Approved For Release 2008/04/07 :CIA-RDP84S00558R000500100004-5 The Isle of Youth accepts students for primary, junior high, and high school, most with little or no previous education. In many cases, Cuba advertises its scholar- ships in the press of the countries receiving such grants. Students must have valid passports, birth certificates, health records, scholastic records, and photographs and must arrive in Cuba by mid-August for the September school year. numbered more than 1,500. Growtb of the Program More than 50,000 nationals from 80 countries have traveled to Cuba for all types of schooling. Beginning in the early 1960s, Havana invited a few hundred students each year from friendly regimes and leftist insurgent groups in less developed countries to study in Cuban university programs or in cadre and techni- cal training programs. Until the mid-1970s, students came from only some 15 to 20 countries, almost all in Latin America. Foreign university students never Now, foreign students account for about 1 percent of the entire Cuban school population; they make up about 3.5 percent of university enrollment. The four largest recipients of Cuban scholarships Angola, Ethiopia, Mozambique, and Nicaragua-together ac- count for nearly three-fourths of all foreign students in Cuba. Africans have assumed increased importance in the foreign student body. In 1977, Cuba accepted several thousand elementary and high school students from Angola, Ethiopia, and Mozambique. Students from African countries now represent 70 percent of the foreign student body. Latin American countries account for a fourth of all foreign students in Cuba; most of this group come from Nicaragua. Havana's recent offers of 350 scholarships to students from conservative English-speaking Caribbean countries have not yet been taken up. We expect the number of students from these countries in Cuba to grow during the coming school year. For example, Barbados prob- ably will accept its first Cuban scholarship this year. 25X1 25X1 25X1 cultural and educational agreements to administer its scholarship program. Since 1975, 39 developing coun- tries have established diplomatic relations with Cuba, and foreign officials have become more responsive to Cuban education offers. The importance of these formal agreements is reflected in the surge of enroll- ments of foreign students in Cuban educational pro- grams since 1975. Cuban Teachers Abroad In tandem with its program to educate students in Cuba, Havana has mounted an extensive effort to train LDC personnel abroad. In 1982 we estimate that some 5,000 Cubans were in 17 countries, teach- ing in or organizing university, elementary, and sec- ondary school systems (table 4). These representatives help local officials set up curricula and work/study programs similar to those in Cuba. The Cuban teach- ing program in LDCs is designed to impart basic skills to broad segments of the population. Far fewer Cuban Approved For Release 2008/04/07 :CIA-RDP84S00558R000500100004-5 Approved For Release 2008/04/07 :CIA-RDP84S00558R000500100004-5 Secret Table 4 Cuban Teachers in LDCs, 1982 a Total 4,955 1\iorth Africa 10 Algeria 10 Sub-Saharan Africa 2,705 Angola 2,000 Benin 20 Congo 55 _- Equatorial Guinea 10 Ethiopia 240 Guinea 75 Guinea-Bissau 30 ___ Madagascar 10 'vtozambique _- 150 Sao Tome and Principe 100 Tanzania 15 Latin America 2,135 Grenada 10 Guyana 10 __ __- Nicaragua 2,115 Middle East -- ___ 100 South Yemen 100 South Asia 5 Afghanistan 5 named for revolutionary heroes. Overseas duty has become an integral part of the teacher training curric- ulum since the mid-1970s. A tour abroad generally ensures a better position at home. The teachers arc typically young and the overseas tour constitutes the final component of their own five-year degree pro- gram or their first assignment upon completion of training. Cuban press reports indicate that since many are stationed in rural areas of the least developed coun- tries, Cuban teachers often find life abroad rigorous. The workday runs for 12 hours; in return the teachers receive lodging, food, and about $30 per month. Castro has publicly acknowledged that a number have died in the course of duty. A Program Assessment The cost to Cuba of its educational program for LDCs is modest, particularly when compared with the pro- grams of other countries. Based on Cuban data, we calculate that Havana budgets less than the peso equivalent of $10 million annually to train foreigners. To our knowledge, there are no significant hard currency expenditdres associated with the program. Transportation expenses, the only hard currency com- ponent, are defrayed by the student, his government 25X1 25X1 25X1 teachers are found at the university level, but a few provide instruction in medicine, agriculture, and vet- erinary medicine. A handful lecture in other academic fields. Some Cuban teachers reportedly help build or refurbish schools in rural areas. Cuban teachers are selected for two-year "interna- tionalist" tours abroad based on their loyalty and the strength of their Communist beliefs, according to official Cuban announcements. They take six months of preliminary training that outlines the political and educational goals of Cuban aid and provides back- ground on the culture and conditions of their country of assignment. Where the teaching effort is extensive, such as in Angola and Nicaragua, teachers are orga- nized into 1,000- to 2,000-member detachments The Isle of Youth program is virtually cost free, and indeed Cuban officials publicly claim it is financially profitable. Some foreign governments provide supple- mental monthly stipends to the students and furnish up to 25 percent of the faculty. Students are responsi- ble for the basic upkeep of the facilities (which are constructed by a quick and inexpensive prefabricated construction method) and work 18 hours a week in operation t e arm output at sc e le of Youth was more than enough to underwrite construc- tion costs and annual operating expenses. after three years of ools on th Is 25X1 1~X"I 25X1 Approved For Release 2008/04/07 :CIA-RDP84S00558R000500100004-5 Approved For Release 2008/04/07 :CIA-RDP84S00558R000500100004-5 Figure 3 Cuban Teachers in Less Developed Countries (LDCs) in 1982 8oundery representation le not necessarily authoritative. We believe that the assignment of teachers to develop- to be the closest to Castro of the Directorate's mem- ing countries is also a profitable undertaking. Hard bars and probably the principal conduit of Cuban currency expenditures are kept to a minimum and influence. many host countries-Angola for one-pay a hard currency fee for teachers. Under a typical Cuban arrangement, Havana pays the teachers' salaries, while the host is responsible for local costs, such as transportation and living expenses, plus a small monthly stipend for personal expenditures. Cuba stands to gain from its education programs for foreign students in two ways: through the rise to prominance of individual alumni of Cuban programs and through the broader diffusion throughout a coun- try's technical and political infrastructure of a large number of students who have been trained in Cuba or The chances for the Cuban program's success are enhanced by its careful scrutiny of a candidate's political background. Many students already are by Cubans at home. Presumably these people are Success on a broader scale is becoming evident pri- sympathetic to Cuban goals. Even though the expan- marily in those countries that have had the greatest Sion of the education program is less than a decade number of students in Cuba or that have had the most old, there are already examples of success in both areas. The most notable of Cuban alumni thus far are two members of Nicaragua's ruling National Direc- torate, Humberto Ortega Saavedra and Tomas Borge Martinez. Both are hardliners, and Ortega is reported 25X1 25X1 25X1 Approved For Release 2008/04/07 :CIA-RDP84S00558R000500100004-5 Approved For Release 2008/04/07 :CIA-RDP84S00558R000500100004-5 Secret Cuban teachers-Angola, Mozambique, Ethiopia, and Nicaragua. In these countries, the Cubans are conducting crash literacy programs which incorporate heavy doses of Marxist ideology. The Cuban press reports that since 1977 Cuban teachers in Angola have taught over 300,000 students, and in 1981, 80,000 Nicaraguans received Cuban training, accord- ing to the press in Managua. The impact on the domestic societies of those thousands of students is probably magnified because the skills in which they have been trained by the Cubans are in ahort supply at home. Finally, the Cuban programs have enjoyed success in altering the shape and content of the curriculum in some LDCs, which presumably could contribute to an ideological rapprochement with Cuba. According to open sources, Cuban teachers in Ethiopia, Grenada, Guyana, and South Yemen have been successful in getting these countries to revamp their primary and/ or secondary schools using the Cuban Isle of Youth model. The Cuban program has not been without its critics. Ethiopian officials, many educated in the West, have criticized Cuban training as simplistic. Even more have complained that excessive indoctrination has interfered with the achievement of educational goals. Angola, Ethiopia, and Mozambique have had to recall several hundred disaffected students who have been unable to make the transition to life in Cuban society. Outlook The Cuban educational program will undoubtedly continue at least at current levels and will probably grow for several reasons: ? The Cuban school population is decreasing at a rate of about 200,000 students a year, according to Cuban data. This creates more openings for foreign students. ? Cuba has announced plans to construct 15 to 20 more schools for foreign nationals on the Isle of Youth facilities which could house 14,000 addition- al students. ? Some 82 developing nations now recognize Cuba, compared with 43 before 1975, greatly expanding the pool of eligible students. ? Observed Cuban scholarship offers to the longstand- ing African recipients have not declined while Cuba has substantially increased offers to others, particu- larly Seychelles and Zambia. New offers to Carib- bean countries while not large in number nonethe- less reflect the program's undiminished vigor and the Cuban determination to broaden penetration efforts. We expect that the Cuban training programs will remain an integral part of Havana's foreign policy, satisfying some of Castro's major objectives. Moscow has every reason to encourage the program, but we do not believe it is likely to get directly involved. None- theless, the Soviets as well as Havana will benefit as during the next decade the 27,000 students currently in Cuba move into careers made possible by Havana and an even larger number of new students take their places in Cuban schools. Approved For Release 2008/04/07 :CIA-RDP84S00558R000500100004-5 Approved For Release 2008/04/07 :CIA-RDP84S00558R000500100004-5 Secret Secret Approved For Release 2008/04/07 :CIA-RDP84S00558R000500100004-5