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Special education in Cuba
Focus on the future
• With 100 students enrolled, the
Abel
Santamaría
Special School for Blind and Visually Impaired
Children
is a prime example of social
inclusion for pupils with this kind of disability
Sundred Suzarte Medina (Text & photos)
Although his pace is deliberate, he “looks” forward
as someone defying circumstance, and seeing this
makes me smile. He is so sure of himself, facing the
future, believing in his potential. He holds in his
hands the necessary tools of certain triumph,
because more important than a human condition, is
the aptitude which allows him to improve, and
observe that which ordinary eyes can not see.
Reiniel Guzmán Frómeta is 15 years of age and in
10th grade at Jesús Suárez Gayol Pre-university High
School, in Havana. It is a typical school, like any
other in the city. His relationship with his peers
is good; his academic record, excellent; and his
social development, exceptional. For some teachers
he is their best student. For the majority, he is
the most well-rounded in the school.
Limitations? None, well, yes, one… he is blind.
 “It
is difficult for parents to teach their blind and
visually impaired children, but with consistency and
faith they can help them progress,” emphasized
Claribel Frómeta, Reiniel’s mother.
Despite this, Reiniel is an example of what
can be achieved with adequate educational
cooperation – essential to the successful inclusion
of people with this type of disability in society.
After attending the Abel Santamaría Special School
for Blind and Visually Impaired Children - in
Havana’s Ciudad Escolar Libertad - from preschool
through 9th Grade, Reiniel was ready to move to the
general education system, having mastered
orientation techniques and the Braille system of
reading and writing. His accomplishments are
encouraging.
“At
this school, I learned the first steps that enabled
me to make the transition to a regular school. The
quality of teachers is excellent and the change
wasn’t very difficult. I have always been able to
rely on the support of everyone, everywhere; and
although I don’t know what I want to study, I know
that I definitely want to go to university,” Reiniel
said.
According to José Manuel Pérez López, director of
Abel Santamaría, the imperative is to provide
children with skills which will enable them to be
fully integrated into society, despite their
limitations, in such a way that their disability
does not hinder success in their personal or
professional lives.
The
Abel Santamaría school is large, well ventilated and
has open spaces for recreation and mobility. It has
a staff of 56 teachers and 97 students, 30 of whom
are completely blind and the remainder with 29
different types of visual impairment, in particular
cataracts and severe myopia. There are also 13
students with mental disabilities, some blind-deaf
and others with autism.
“We
work with general education curricula, only changing
the techniques, procedures and teaching methods. A
child here receives the same education, in the same
time, as one in general education. This means that,
when they are integrated, they are at a similar
level.
“As
soon as they master orientation techniques and learn
how to use a cane, we can talk about the possibility
of transferring them to another school. We teach
visually impaired children to utilize their visual
capacity with greater efficiency, putting their
learning into practice in daily life. Once they
transfer to the other system, we become a source of
support and advice. We take steps to ensure that the
child is completely successful in the other school.
We also support the teachers. Until now, none of the
79 children transferred has had to return to our
institution, and next semester we are considering
transferring 14 students to general education. There
are currently 18 blind students enrolled in
university in the capital, achieving very good
results,” stated the director.
With
the intention of reaching the greatest level of
inclusion, the school has four rooms where students
who don’t attend the pre-university high school
develop vocational skills. Despite this being the
school’s main objective, López explained that the
principal obstacles to transferring a student to
general education come from parents, who believe
that their child will be better served, if they
continue on at Abel Santamaría. However, teachers at
Abel Santamaría agree that the process of
socialization is best achieved through interaction
with people who don’t have these conditions.
Therefore, teachers work closely with families to
teach them the best techniques, so that their
children learn to cope independently.
Being useful to society
 Equipment
such as magnifying glasses, is available at Abel
Santamaría, despite Cuba’s economic limitations.
Special education in Cuba is one of the
education system’s principal challenges, as teacher
training and the use of specialized materials and
equipment can be expensive. Despite this, Abel
Santamaría maintains its initiative, creating
teaching methods with the resources available and
encouraging students themselves to search for
alternatives. For example, they construct lecterns
from cardboard, make their own graph paper or use
other variants.
For
more than 50 years the Cuban state has successfully
supported social inclusion of the disabled, and
insisted on the need for society to accept their
limitations and perceive in them an opportunity for
the country’s development. According to
psychologist, Geraldina Mercedes González, born
blind, people who believe that a disability limits
the contribution one can make to society are
mistaken. These ideas are “psychological barriers,
which do more harm than physical barriers. When we
have the opportunity to contribute socially we do so
in a successful way. We try to do it in the best
possible way.
“I
would like to end with this message to anyone who
undervalues us at any time: We are human beings, the
same as everyone else, with a different way of
processing information, through hearing and touch,
but we have the same intellectual potential. We also
deserve to share a little in the joy of supporting
and contributing to society,” emphasized Geraldina,
with a hazy look which contrasts with the accuracy
of her point of view, as someone who can see far
beyond the horizon.
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