In Cuban schools

Here is something we don’t see all that often: an article in The New York Times detailing “shortcomings” in Fidel Castro’s schools.

In fact, the great North American journal of record merely confirms what many of us have known for a long time - that while the Cuban education system is (and has always been) better and more equitable than those in some other Latin American countries, it’s quite patchy. And getting worse.

How patchy? According to the article, parents often complain about children being “crammed” into classes that number as many as 40 pupils, where they are taught by unqualified undergraduate students or “makeshift teachers”.

In many cases, parents are forced to hire private tutors to ensure their children learn to read and write.

The article quotes a 20 year “teaching veteran” who left the classroom to work in a beauty salon because he said salaries were too low in teaching as saying: “Our schools have fallen into a hole.”

Just don’t tell the old dictator.