Honduras will receive 10 Cuban “high-tech education experts” to help create a new academic curriculum design that “completely changes the educational model.” This was reported by the Tegucigalpa government itself after an agreement was signed between the two countries. Last Tuesday.
The agreement will last three years, they said, and aims to “contribute to the design and implementation of the process of transforming education from a curriculum design perspective, based on the establishment of cooperative relationships between the two countries.”
The Secretariat for Strategic Planning of Honduras, one of the entities that, together with the Secretariats of Education and Culture, signed the agreement with the Ministry of Education of Cuba, has given notice a promotional video published in networks: “Our education system will be universal, inclusive, participatory, secular and scientific.
In the pictures, a fair-skinned and good-looking young woman explains the meaning of the agreement in just under two minutes, smiling and making exaggerated gestures. “The system prioritizes four aspects in education: literacy, universal access to education, the importance of teachers and education that focuses on social change,” he explains, referring to education in Cuba.
“The Cuban school system is passing on its knowledge and achievements to around 43 countries and Honduras will now be a part of it”
Honduras, he continues, “will take this system as a model, which is one of the best in the world, and transform the exclusive system into an inclusive one, and we will start raising the cultural level of the population, deepening values such as solidarity and collaboration, starting from the thoughts of General Francisco Morazán [padre fundador de Honduras, apodado “el Simón Bolívar de Centroamérica”]and so we will eliminate social discrimination through education and we will be equal”.
The announcer emphasizes that “the Cuban school system is passing on its knowledge and achievements to about 43 countries and Honduras will now be a part of it”. Although the Cuban Ministry of Education does not currently have updated figures for the international missions it has conducted, it announced in 2013 that it had displaced a total of 2,326 teachers in the same number of countries, at the time the highest number recorded. and intends to increase it in the following years.
At that time, the largest group (423) was in Venezuela, the country with the largest presence of Cuban educators, followed by Equatorial Guinea with 221 and Angola with 219. In 2015 the latter had 1,400 teachers.
South Africa or El Salvador are other nations with which the island has educational agreements. The export of skilled workers – mainly doctors, but also teachers, engineers, sailors, architects and even artists – is the regime’s main source of funding and is considered forced labor by various international organizations such as Human Rights Watch or Prisoners Defenders.
In Honduras, another education agreement is in force with Cuba, which advises on the Honduran national literacy program with the system called “Yo Sí Puedo”, which is also exported to countries such as Mexico.
This agreement was not free from controversy, and in the face of complaints from national teachers, Honduran Deputy Minister of Education Edwin Hernández had to clarify that the Cuban teachers would not teach and that “they would only be a support”.
“What we have is advice, that is, Cuban professors with a high technical level are the ones who will advise us to establish the program in the country.”
“What we have is advice, that is, Cuban teachers with a high technical level will advise us to establish the program in the country; those who will be running the literacy courses are Honduran teachers,” he said in August last year, when it was clarified that his secretariat had “not generated any expenses on the subject of consultations” up to that point.
“The investment by the Cuban consultancy will be minimal in relation to the results this will bring,” said the official.
Both states signed a “Memorandum of Understanding” last July through the Honduran Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Trade and Strategic Investments. Although the details have not yet come to light, Honduran Foreign Minister Eduardo Enrique Reina stated: “This memorandum opens up the possibility of exploring new avenues of cooperation in areas such as science and technology, literacy programs and scholarship exchanges”.
Tegucigalpa drew closer to Havana following the election victory of Xiomara Castro, former First Lady and wife of former Honduran President Manuel Zelaya, who was ousted on June 28, 2009 for promoting constitutional reforms the law prevented him from doing.
Prior to her election as the first female head of state, the media and opposition had warned that Castro’s program followed a Chavista plan for “national rebuilding,” which, given the recently signed accord, appears to be coming true.
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