We invite you to participate in a remarkable research delegation to study the Cuban Public Education System. Cuba is a relatively poor, developing country with 2% of the Latin American population, that somehow manages to produce 11% of its scientists!

In 2005, the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) released its Education For All (EFA) Global Monitoring Report, that specifically focuses on elevating the quality of education for all children, especially the most vulnerable and disadvantaged, by the year 2015. Cuba, along with the more developed countries of Canada, Finland and Korea, is singled out in the report as a high-performance country and role model to follow in terms of the quality of its educational system. Cuba is the only Latin American country, and the only relatively poor country, to achieve this status.

A Caribbean island nation of 11 million people, with an economy based on agriculture and tourism, Cuba still spends 10 to 11 % of its GDP on education, by far the highest ratio of any country in the world. (Finland, the next closest, spends 6 percent.)

Cuba's educational system is mandatory through the ninth grade, free to all, at all levels, including higher education. Cuba "promotes the education of the whole individual (including physical, sports, and artistic development) while explicitly linking education with life, work and production." State-mandated education programs require all Cuban children to remain in school through age 15. From there, students may choose to enter the workforce or attend a technical school, sports school, or pre-university school.

Pre-university schooling is not compulsory, but it is free. Those who graduate may attend one of Cuba's 32 colleges at no cost as well. According to a study by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), one of every 15 Cubans holds a university degree.

The study calls Cuba's educational achievements "incredibly impressive." In 1961, immediately following the revolution, the Cuban government organized brigades of 100,000 high school and college students to spend up to a year in rural and urban poor areas, teaching illiterate people to read and write. The program was called the National Literacy Campaign, and many Cubans today, who participated in that campaign, say it was the most meaningful experience of their lives. Less than 10 years after the revolution, Cuba had reduced illiteracy by 40 percent, achieving a 96.9 percent literacy rate. Its pupil-to-teacher ratio is now 13.5 in primary school and 15 for all levels of education; its literacy rate today is effectively, 100%.

By comparison, the highly publicized U.S. educational program, titled "No Child Left Behind Act," in many communities, has had the opposite result. It has left not only children behind, but also teachers, and whole school districts, mostly poor. The ratio of students per teacher has increased, in the last few years, in many schools to over 40 students per instructor. Furthermore, this act has exposed the discrepancy in the educational system in the U.S., where, due to the U.S. system of local property taxation to finance the education of its children, low-income children, especially from minority groups, will never receive the same quality of education as children in high-wealth districts.

We in the U.S. can only hope that under the Obama Administration, these priorities will change and that the U.S. will find a way, within its massive budget, to prioritize the quality education of its children. In the meantime, Cuba offers us an example of a country in which poverty plays little role in the overall educational achievements of its populace. Cuba's per pupil expenditure for education is a mere fraction of U.S. expenditures, but their expenditures are equitably distributed and their accomplishments are internationally praised. What can U.S. educators learn from the Cuban example?

Travel to Cuba with Global Exchange Reality Tours and learn how Cuba does so much with so little!

Program Highlights:

• * City tour and Scale Model of Havana
• * Literacy Museum
• * Museum of the Revolution
• * Ministry of Education
• * Special Education School
• * School for the Arts
• * Latin American School of Medicine
• * Intentional Community, Las Terrazas
• * Provincial community education project
• * Cuban Pedagogical Association
• * Association of Social Work Professors

Cost: $2550

Price Includes:

• * Flight from Cancun to Havana
• * Flight from Havana to Cancun
• * Breakfast daily
• * Three star hotel accommodations
• * In-country translation
• * In-country transportation
• * Program fees
• * Price is based on double room accommodations; add $300 for single room
• * Price does NOT include airfare to/from Cancun, beverages, gratuities, travel insurance, personal expenditures, etc.

How to Register:

Make your reservation online now!

Contact Leslie with any questions about this trip, or call toll-free 1-800-497-1994 ext. 242.