Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Blog 6:With Cuts, Free Education Is No Longer a Cuban Birthright


A person named Reuters writes this article. Basically what this article is about is that Cuba is cutting back its free education system and moving students into more useful careers to reduce costs and fill needs in the workplace. According to government statistics, “Enrollment in the communist-run country’s many types of schools fell to 2.2 million students last year from 3 million in 2008, a drop of 27 percent, according to the National Statistics Office.” (Reuters, “Cuts”). It has been going on since the Cuban revolution in 1959, which stressed the importance of education. “Among the hardest hits were universities, where the number of students dropped almost 50 percent to 156,000 in 2011, from 300,000 in 2008, as admission standards were raised and liberal arts careers slashed. Adult education also fell drastically. Only 145,000 students were enrolled last year in university extension classes, a fraction of the 578,000 who signed up in 2008. Enrollment in adult education courses, designed to improve work skills, dropped to 129,000 from 373,000 in 2008 as the longstanding practice of paying state workers and farmers their full salaries to study during the day came to an end.” (Reuters, “Cuts”). These days in Cuba means that more skilled workers and farmers boost Cuba’s food production, but means fewer professionals jobs. “At the high school level, emphasis is being put on sciences, pedagogy, agriculture and skilled trades. The number of places for students in pre-university schools declined by some 50,000, or more than 20 percent since 2008, the report stated. More students were channeled into the skilled trades, where slots jumped to 74,000 from 26,000 in 2008.” (Reuters, “Cuts”).
            This article made me realize that maybe the United States should have a education system like this because it would create jobs that our economy needs. For example, if we needed more bankers, but had way too many nurses, they could place those students in banking jobs. This is also a good idea because then jobs wouldn’t be so competitive to get. If you knew where you where you were going to get placed, then you would be guaranteed a job. 

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