CU education

South Florida Sun-Sentinel - HAVANA - Universal education is one of the hallmarks of Cuba's revolution. The island touts its 98 percent literacy rate, and a UNESCO study confirmed that the quality of education here is among the highest in Latin America. However, a decade-long exodus of educators to better-paying jobs has forced the government to rely on an unlikely ally to compensate for a shortage of about 1,000 teachers in Havana: the television set. The Cuban government is investing $3.7 million in a new TV channel dedicated to educational and cultural programming that will be launched next month. Students in schools throughout Havana and the surrounding province will simply tune in at designated times to televised chemistry, physics or math lessons. The channel will be broadcast to Santiago de Cuba, the island's second-largest city, in January. In addition to classes, it will include both homegrown and foreign documentaries, children's shows, broadcasts of the Communist government's daily current affairs program and massive rallies. Right now, the most popular programming on Cuba's two existing state-run channels is a Brazilian soap opera and the two American movies broadcast every Saturday night. But for many years, Cuba has tried to use TV as a tool for education beyond the classroom. Last fall the government started broadcasting daily hourlong classes called the Universidad para Todos, or University for All, in subjects ranging from history and music theory to English and French. The new educational channel will expand possibilities to reach out to children in overcrowded classrooms. The shortage of qualified teachers began in the 1990s during Cuba's grinding recession when thousands of teachers -- as well as other professionals -- sought new jobs in the private sector where they would have access to dollars, the only currency worth anything. Enrollment in teacher preparation courses plummeted and many seasoned educators flocked to tourism as a lifeline. One hotel in east Havana was staffed with so many teachers that it was nicknamed "Little Lenin," for Lenin High School, where many of its employees had worked. By 1999, when Cuba's economy began to recover, teachers became some of the first professionals to receive pay raises of as much as 30 percent from their average monthly salaries of about $12. When the island began opening up to tourism, teachers were welcomed into hotels and restaurants, because they were considered educated and responsible workers. So many teachers left the classroom that tourism companies were forbidden from hiring anyone with a teaching background. But teachers are still found inspecting shoppers' bags at the dollar grocery store or working as secretaries for foreign firms and embassies. One former high school math teacher who now hawks black market cigars to tourists in Old Havana was skeptical of the new TV channel. "Television cannot replace experienced teachers and the teachers don't want to go back to the classroom," said the 17-year veteran teacher who declined to be named. Teachers are forced to find ways to put food on the table every day, he said. Officials in the Ministry of Education say the teacher shortage is more acute in Havana than in the rest of the island, where options are more limited and the cost of living is lower. Other provinces that have reported a teacher shortage are Matanzas, where the tourist playground of Varadero is located, and Ciego de Avila, with its burgeoning hotel construction on Cayo Coco. There are as yet no plans, however, to broadcast to these provinces