Cuba - although one of the poorest countries in Latin America - shows the best results in basic education. And by a long shot. Scoring 350 points (around 90 per cent correct answers), Cuba is 100 points ahead of the regional average. Argentina, Chile and Brazil follow, with scores close to 250 points. The lowest results were in the Dominican Republic and Venezuela.
What do these scores mean and how should they be interpreted? "They have profound implications for the region and call for a mayor shift in policy development," says Juan Casassus of the Latin American Laboratory for Evaluation and Quality of Education at UNESCO Santiago, who conducted the study. For him, Cuba's performance is no accident. "Education has been a top priority in Cuba for forty years. It's a true learning society: all Cuban parents have at least completed secondary education; they work hand-in-hand with the school and formal pre-schools are excellent."
The study also shatters another pre-conceived idea: that good education requires substantial resources. While the results do not imply that funding is unnecessary, they strongly suggest, adds Casassus, "that socio-cultural factors affect good achievement more than economic factors."
"What do Latin American children learn?", "Under what conditions do they learn?", "At what stage do they learn?" These were some of the questions the study attempted to answer. After three years preparation, it was conducted between June and November 1997. It focused on language and mathematics in third and fourth grades in 1,400 schools and among 56,000 students of 13 countries (Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Chile, Honduras, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, Dominican Republic and Venezuela). "The methodology used is the most sophisticated that exists," claims Casassus, before going on to explain that the study compared learning achievement not only across countries, but also across large cities, middle-size towns and rural areas as well as across public and private schools. "It is this refinement of analysis that gives such solid and unexpected results," he adds. Consider this example.
The study reveals that on average private schools fare better than
public schools. Normal, you might think, because private-school students come
from better-off families. "Not so", explains Casassus, "because when you
adjust these results using other variables (such as country-city-town-rural
zones, or parents' education) the difference tends to disappear. This is,
according to Casassus, one the major findings of the study: "the issue
of
privately-managed schools versus publicly-managed ones loses its
relevance when other variables are used."
The study also shows that on average urban schools perform better than rural schools. But it demonstrates that some individual rural schools out-perform urban ones. "This is a very encouraging signal," adds Casassus, "because, contrary to popular belief, it proves that, not only can we do things in rural areas, but we must see these rural areas with new eyes."
Differences in national curricula make it problematic to conduct international comparative studies. The fact that this one was able to identify and test items common to all the participating countries proves, according to Casassus, the existence of a common Latin American culture transmitted through education systems. "This is a major political question", he says, "because it suggests that cultural integration is attainable alongside the trend towards economic integration."
Source: "About Learning," UNESCO Education News, No. 17 June - August 1999, p. 4
Download the entire UNESCO report (85 pages), "First International Comparative Study of Language, Mathematics and Associated Factors in Third and Fourth Grades," 1998
Some highlights:
- The first finding reveals that the results show differences among countries, both in levels and distribution of test achievement. The Cuban scores stand out significantly among countries in the region...(p. 12)
- The test achievement of the lower half of students in Cuba is significantly better than the test achievement of the upper half of students in the countries that fall immediately behind Cuba. (p. 21)
This, from a report from the staff of the World Bank...
by Lavinia Gasperini
The record of Cuban education is
outstanding: universal school enrollment and attendance; nearly universal
adult literacy; proportional female representation at all levels, including
higher education; a strong scientific training base, particularly in chemistry
and medicine; consistent pedagogical quality across widely dispersed
classrooms; equality of basic educational opportunity, even in
impoverished areas, both rural and urban.
In a recent regional study of Latin America and the Caribbean, Cuba
ranked first in math and science achievement, [UNESCO 1998, above] at all
grade levels, among both males and females. In many ways, Cuba’s schools are
the equals of schools in OECD countries, despite the fact that Cuba’s
economy is that of a developing country.
What has allowed Cuba’s education system to perform so well, even under the severe resource constraints of the past decade, is the continuity in its education strategies, sustained high levels of investments in education, and a comprehensive and carefully structured system, characterized by:
quality basic education and universal access to primary and secondary school
comprehensive early childhood education and student health programs (established as part of the commitment to basic education);
complementary educational programs for those outside school--literacy, adult and non-formal education (again as part of the basic education commitment);
mechanisms to foster community participation in management of schools;
great attention to teachers (extensive pre- and in-service training, high status and morale, incentives, transparent system of accountability, strategies for developing a culture of professionalism, rewards for innovation);
low-cost instructional materials of high quality;
teacher and student initiative in adapting the national curriculum and developing instructional materials locally;
carefully structured competition that enhances the system rather than the individual;
explicit strategies to reach rural students and students with special needs;
strategies to link school and work; and
an emphasis on education for
social cohesion.
The importance of these factors is affirmed by a growing body of school quality and effectiveness research carried out in other parts of the world, mostly subsequent to or at least independently of their adoption in Cuba. Thus, Cuba’s experience is instructive in several ways. It provides evidence of the importance of certain critical inputs, around which research consensus is growing. Though unlikely to be replicated in full, many of these inputs can be adopted—clear standards of accountability, provision of textbooks, attention to the professional development of teachers, etc.. Most importantly, perhaps, the Cuban case demonstrates that high quality education is not simply a function of national income but of how that income is mobilized. A highly-mobilized people can realize high quality education by ensuring the necessary inputs, paying attention to equity, setting and holding staff to high professional standards, and caring for the social roles of key stakeholders—teachers, community members, children.
Download entire text of report (40 pages), "The Cuban Education System: Lessons and Dilemmas," The World Bank, 1999