CUBA is at 16th place on a list drawn up by UNESCO assessing investment in education at the global level and development indices in this sector. The country is rated above the United States, which occupies 25th place.
Herman van Hooff, director of the UNESCO Latin America and the Caribbean Education Office, presenting the Education for All Follow Report, noted that Cuba heads the region in this context.
According to Prensa Latina, following Cuba on the list in regional terms are Aruba, placed 40th; Argentina, 43rd; while Venezuela and Bolivia – countries receiving Cuban cooperation in the education sector – are at 58th and 74th places, respectively.
The report notes that average Latin American and Caribbean public spending on education is 4.1% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP); however, this oscillates between 3% in Uruguay and 9.3% in Cuba, reflecting different levels of economic development and degrees of commitment to educational programs.
UNESCO condemns the existence of 61 million children in the world with no elementary education, 47% of whom will never receive it, and exposes an extreme situation in regions such as Sub-Saharan Africa and Southern Asia.
It confirms that poverty is the principal cause of the pauperization of teaching throughout the world, and in this context, points to the non-fulfillment of a funding commitment given by the most developed countries during the 2005 G-8 Summit in Scotland.
This 10th UNESCO report also emphasizes the need to equip new generations with different basic, transferable and technical-professional skills in order to face the future.
This right would assure young people of essential training in order to acquire worthwhile employment and to fully participate in the society of the future, Van Hooff stated.