Among the changes will be more free hours for teachers to prepare for their classes and more vocational training programs for students. In addition, greater importance will be placed on having the school councils discuss students’ problems with their families. EFE/File
Havana, Jul 8 (EFE). — The Cuban Education Ministry announced that during the next school year it will try out a new model giving more autonomy to the schools, according to which they will be able to organize their own schedules and activities to a greater degree.
Education Minister Ena Elsa Velazquez said that the decision reviewed by hundreds of teachers, students and officials and it will allow principals to organize the internal activities of their schools in accord with their particular circumstances and their environment.
Among the changes will be more free hours for teachers to prepare for their classes and more vocational training programs for students.
In addition, greater importance will be placed on having the school councils discuss students’ problems with their families.
But “flexibility does not mean that each school will do what it wants. The study plan must be respected and carried out with more rigor, and professors must … prepare themselves better to that no class is left out,” Velazquez said.
The new adjustments seek to improve the island’s educational system, which has among its goals to impart the correct information about values, fulfill the prevailing school regulations and eliminate academic fraud.
Over the long term, the ministry is developing a broader process that includes changes in curricula and textbooks.
The problems in the educational sector, which is one of the flagship elements of the Cuban Revolution, in recent years have become the focus of controversy on the island, and last week the meeting of National Assembly committees devoted a significant amount of discussion time to the matter.
