Cuba Pitches Helping Hand to UNESCO

Cuba´s Deputy Education Minister Francisco Ferreira offered last week the participation of the country´s teachers to collaborate in UNESCO literacy programs. The Cuban official made the proposal at the roundtable on “Education for All (EFA)” that gathers ministers from around the world at the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Headquarters in Paris, France.

The meeting includes topics such as resource mobilization and aid effectiveness, strengthening partnerships in education on the national level and the role and strategy of UNESCO in the drive towards the effective implementation of the EFA, among other agendas.

Mr. Ferreira announced Cuba´s willingness to team up with Latin American and African countries by sending volunteer teachers to UN programs. The Deputy Minister summed up 45 years of the island´s work on education, with no illiteracy since 1961, and mentioned efforts to guarantee teaching quality.

The meeting comes at a very critical time, as the EFA Global Monitoring Report 2005 has shown that occurrences such as man-made or natural disasters, the continued spread of HIV and AIDS, particularly in Africa, and large-scale political and economic crises, have inhibited the progress made towards achieving EFA goals by the year 2015.