CUBA: MOLDING REVOLUTIONARY SPIRIT ON THE ISLE OF YOUTH

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91B00135R000500810006-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 21, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 7, 2008
• Sequence Number: 6
• Publication Date: November 23, 1979
• Content Type: REPORT

Approved For Release 2008/05/07: CIA-RDP91 B001 35R000500810006-3
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 it also transforms the political, economic,
and social structure.
0
Havana's ambitious foreign assistance program for
'Third world countries involves the educational and ideo-
logical training of several thousand African 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
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 is a 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-
ment in excess of 40,000.
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
STAT
Approved For Release 2008/05/07: CIA-RDP91 B001 35R000500810006-3
 Approved For Release 2008/05/07: CIA-RDP91 B001 35R000500810006-3
STAT
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.
Outlook
The work-study program appears central to-C-astro'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.
23 November 1979
Approved For Release 2008/05/07: CIA-RDP91 B001 35R000500810006-3
STAT