Four Keys to Cuba’s Provision of High Quality Public Education

• In Event: Is the invisible hand a magic wand? Privatization vs. public investments in national educational systems

Abstract

Cuba is a rather lower income country even by Latin American standards. The Cuban economy is run by the state and the Cuban bureaucracy does a mediocre job of it, even taking into account the fifty plus years of a United States economic blockade. But somehow the Cuban education system is the envy of the rest of Latin America. Cuban elementary pupils score much higher in math and language tests than children in other Latin American countries.

A six-year study analyzing the quality of elementary mathematics teachers in five Latin American countries, including Cuba, generated the following four lessons about Cuba’s success: 1) state-generated social capital matters; 2) curriculum matters, but its implementation depends on teacher capacity; 3) teacher education needs to be practice-based and tightly coordinated with existing curriculum, a process that does not occur spontaneously; and 4) instructional leadership and supervision is key to improving instruction – market incentives are no substitute for good management.

Despite advantages in these four areas, the Cuban system also has obvious drawbacks, especially in the lack of political freedom and limits on individual choice. However, democratic societies can educate better without turning to authoritarianism. The lessons drawn from the Cuban experience do suggest, however, that the state must be more of a guarantor of quality education for all – taking public responsibility for children’s success. This presentation will further explain these Cuban lessons within the context of the larger symposium questions of how to learn about different ways of investing in education.

Author

• Martin Carnoy, Stanford University