CUBA: MOLDING REVOLUTIONARY SPIRIT ON THE ISLE OF YOUTH

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91B00135R000500820067-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: January 4, 2017
• Document Release Date: April 18, 2008
• Sequence Number: 67
• Publication Date: November 23, 1979
• Content Type: REPORT

Approved For Release 2008/04/18: CIA-RDP91 B001 35R000500820067-5
9 APR 1933
STAT
STAT ,
Cuba: Molding Revolutionary Spirit on the-Isle
of Youth (U)
Only a revolution is capable of totally trans-
forming the structure of education in a country be-
cause italso transforms the political,. economic,
and socials-tructure.
--Fidel Castro
Havana's ambitious foreign assistance program for
Third World countries involves the educational and ideo-
logical training of several thousand Afric.n and 600
recently arrived Nicaraguan students on Cuba's Isle of ,.
.Youth. Known as "work-study," the program inculcates
"revolutionary" habits through traditional schooling,
'political indoctrination, and cooperative agricultural
labor.- In return for its efforts, Havana gains polit
.?..ical influence and whatever is produced by the students'
labors.
Background
merit in. excess of 40,000.
Cuba's decisionmakers have favored the Isle. for
years, and through budget allotments and tax benefits,
they.have turned it into a showcase for Havana's highly''.
respected educational. system. The island isa regular-
~stop..on.the tour of the "new Cuba" for official visitors,
some of:whom are accompanied by Fidel Castro--who takes
obvious pride in. Cuba's educational achievement.
Castro inaugurated the'first junior high farming'
school- on. the- Isle- in 1971. Today there are 44 such
schools with a capacity for more than 26,000 students
Plans call-for 80 schools by.1985,.;,with a total enroll-
Program
The curriculum is rigorous and regimented'-
students_wear uniforms at all times and march to and
from classes--and includes basic studies, political
indoctrination, sports,.and.work in the citrus.groves
23 November'.-1979
STAT
Approved For Release 2008/04/18: CIA-RDP91 BOO 135R000500820067-5
 Approved For Release 2008/04/18: CIA-RDP91 B001 35R000500820067-5
The African students have been isolated from the
14,000 to 19,000 Cuban students on the island, probably
to lessen the chance of disagreements with the Cubans
as well as to help preserve their cultural identity.
Moreover, this arrangement keeps the grateful Africans
away from large numbers of Cuban youths who may not be
as enamored of the revolution as Castro would like.
The 600 Nicaraguan students who arrived on the Isle
last month will spend several years in Cuba. Part of a
comprehensive education cooperation plan between Managua
and Havana announced in August, the Nicaraguans are the
first group of non-Africans to be provided their own
school-. Nicaraguan teachers accompanied the students
both to assist their Cuban counterparts and to learn
from them. Managua apparently intends to draw heavily
on the Cuban experience in developing plans for its own-
literacy campaign.
STAT
STAT
Outlook
The work-study program appears central to Castro's
Third World strategy, for international graduates of
the Isle will return home as technicians and teachers
bearing Havana's socialist message. Indicative of its
long-term policy, Havana recently has renewed education
agreements with Ethiopia, Angola, and Mozambique that
.call for increased Cuban assistance.
The above article is Unclassified.
23 November 1979
Approved For Release 2008/04/18: CIA-RDP91 B001 35R000500820067-5