Cuba Features Most Progress in Main EFA Areas

Cuba devoted last year 13 percent of its Gross Domestic Product to education, the highest rate in Latin America, expert Nihan Blanchy Koseleci specialist said today.

That sector has been privileged in the nation’s financial commitments, said Koseleci, researcher of the Education for All (EFA) Global Monitoring Report 2015, prepared by UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization).

The island reached the most progress in the region in the main EFA areas. It has invested in training teachers and has reached many achievements in preschool, primary and junior high level, she told Prensa Latina.

The referred report, presented today by UNESCO, showed that one of three countries in the world has reached the global goals of education for all in the 2000-2015 period, a goal only Cuba achieved in Latin America.

The main goal, universal education of all children in age of attending primary schools, was achieved by half of the nations worldwide, the document stated.

Other items are: extending and improving care in early childhood education, ensuring youth and adults have equal access to learning and acquisition of skills for daily life, and achieving a 50-percent reduction of illiteracy levels in adult population.

Removing disparity among sexes, achieving equality among them in education, improving quality of education for everyone, and getting measurable learning outcomes are also on the list.

UNESCO estimates that about $22 billion dollars a year will be needed to supplement the contributions provided by governments, either ambitious by themselves, if we want to ensure the achievement of new goals in education that are now setting for the 2015-2030 period.