In another attempt to regain lost ground in recent decades in the educational system, the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC) demanded "a commitment to the transformation of political-ideological work in physical and virtual spaces" through "the organization of revolutionary forces and the use of communication and technology."
This was announced on Tuesday at a Review Meeting of the Ministry of Ministry of Education (MINED) featuring Jorge Luis Broche Lorenzo, a member of the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the PCC and head of its Social Attention department, covered by the official Cuban News Agency (ACN).
Jorge Luis Perdomo Di-Lella, deputy prime minister, said that the MINED "must guarantee the education of children and young people with a political/ideological approach, preparing them to face the current context" of what the regime calls "unconventional war."
"In the teaching curriculum, spaces must be ensured to guide the students' reasoning towards a revolutionary and critical conception of the Cuban reality," he said, while on the island the students need to improve their spelling, noted the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
He called it "indispensable" that the curriculum be "strengthened" with "new teaching paradigms that include the use of disruptive technologies, such as applications, digital portals and more attractive teleclasses."
According to Education Minister Ena Elsa Velázquez Cobiella, for 2022 "coverage, training, improvement and attention to teachers are among the priorities, which the previous year did was not systematically realized."
"We will continue to support the spread of new forms of work at all educational institutions across the country as part of the Third Improvement of the National Education System," she said, adding that "the improvement of the Political-Ideological Work System will be essential, along with the teaching of national and local history, the work done by student organizations, and the preparation of their leaders."
She also referred to efforts to "achieve the integral functioning of the homes of children and adolescents without family support, and to apply in schools concepts of Social Pedagogy that bolster bonds with families and communities."
"We will also promote the efficient use of technological resources, computerization, and the implementation of the National Plan for Food Sovereignty and Nutritional Education, the latter based on its impact on school meals and budget savings," she said.
José Ramón Saborido Loidi, Minister of Higher Education, also attended the MINED Review Meeting.
The Cuban education system is characterized by its intensive ideological content, but it has lost its effectiveness over the last decades and the regime has been showing signs of concern for years.
Civic education —an achievement of Cuban pedagogy— was replaced by the ideology of those in power on the island to shape individuals subjected to the totalitarian state, according to journalist and historian Dimas Castellanos, who taught Marxism-Leninism at two Havana universities.
"As a result, the figure of the citizen disappeared, and the individual was transformed en masse, while hundreds of students and teachers were and continue to be expelled from the education system for thinking differently," he added.