U.S. blockade negatively impacts
Cuban children’s education
Ricardo López Hevia
The economic, financial and commercial blockade
imposed by the U.S. on Cuba for over half a century
limits the development of the Cuban education
system, particularly affecting Cuban children,
reported PL.
“What could the U.S. President say about the
blockade to a child lacking the necessary resources
for their education,” asked Lizardo García, director
of the Central Institute of Pedagogical Sciences,
during a press conference.
It is the youngest generation of Cubans which suffer
the deficiencies in the education system given the
prolonged imposition of this U.S. policy, relying
only on the efforts of the revolutionary state and
teachers to guarantee this fundamental human right,
stated García
The economic blockade against Cuba is not abstract,
but rather a genocidal act, as it is not only
imposed on a government, but an entire people, he
stated.
The position taken by the U.S. government impedes
the improvement of education centers, the
acquisition of resources to fight and prevent
illnesses, as well as technologies to equip science
laboratories and teach languages, he emphasized.
Cuba is also forced to pay increased freight costs
to ship goods – which could be acquired in the U.S.
- from distant regions.
From March 2013 through May 2014, Cuba lost 928,600
dollars due to long distance freight costs,
emphasized García. With the money lost, the country
could have carried out necessary repairs to more
schools, obtained more paper, ink, didactic games,
sports equipment, computer parts and literature for
adult education, he commented.
The U.S. blockade, added García, also negatively
impacts academic exchanges between Cuban and U.S.
teachers.
“We
are,”he emphasized, “dealing with an attack on a
peoples’ right to education, particularly children –
above all those who require special education, such
as blind, deaf and hard of hearing students.”
The
President of the United States, Barack Obama, has in
his hands the ability to put an end to the economic,
commercial and financial blockade against Cuba,
stated García.
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