-DATE-
19720816
-YEAR-
1972
-DOCUMENT_TYPE-
SPEECH
-AUTHOR-
F. CASTRO
-HEADLINE-
CASTRO SPEAKS AT COMMENCEMENT EXERCISES
-PLACE-
HAVANA
-SOURCE-
HAVANA DOMESTIC SVC
-REPORT_NBR-
FBIS
-REPORT_DATE-
19720816
-TEXT-
FIDEL CASTRO SPEAKS AT COMMENCEMENT EXERCISES

Havana Domestic Service In Spanish 0104 GMT 16 Aug 72 F

[Text] Maj Fidel Castro, prime minister and first secretary of the party,
tonight closed the commencement exercises for 727 new professors, who
studied at the Enrique Jose Verona Pedagogic Institute of the University of
Havana.

"The life of a people, a human society, is not changed without discipline
and conscientiousness," the prime minister stated, speaking at the
graduation held at the Ceiba Ocho basic secondary field school. The
construction of the school is in its final phase. The first secretary
added. "Culture; as human beings, culture must be created, borne and
transmitted from generation to generation."

The prime minister pointed out the role being fulfilled by the
studies-and-work combination. He spoke of the improvement being noted in
the educational and cultural tasks. "At this juncture we are achieving
educational progress and our outlook has not been produced in any other
country," Fidel asserted.

Referring to the forthcoming dedication of 40 more new basic secondary
schools-in-the-fields, their cost, and the possibilities of investments in
this type of construction, he emphasized that an installation such as Ceiba
Ocho had been built at tremendous savings.

Fidel then spoke of the need to build, primary schools and other
educational buildings, such as teachers' training schools, technological
schools, schools for training scholastic monitors and other schools.

Continuing, the party first secretary told the graduates of the Havana
University Pedagogic Institute: "These secondary schools-in-the-fields are
possible under the revolution, under socialism."

Further on Fidel reviewed what had been accomplished in the educational
field since 1959--classrooms had been created for 10,000 teachers who had
no place to teach; schools had been built wherever it was possible to do
so.

And the prime minister stressed: "Notwithstanding the fact we are putting
forth our best efforts, this will not be sufficient." He told of the
spiralling increase in registration at all school levels.

Fidel then indicated the role teachers should play in building the new
society, "you must work and inoculate a revolutionary culture in the new
generations. Being a teacher is not a means of earning a living; rather, it
means performing a social role," Maj Fidel Castro stated.

Fidel went on to note that "you shall be better professors in the measure
that you grasp the transcendental mission you have for the nation."

The prime minister also spoke of the need for teachers and professors, He
praised the integration of the Manuel (Aponte) Domenech Pedagogic
Detachments, which are made up of outstanding 12-year students who shall
become teachers in the secondary field schools. "Every 100 schools of this
type requires 4,000 teachers," Fidel asserted. And he added: "For the next
school year, we expect an increase of 30,000 new secondary school
students."

Continuing, Fidel explained how culture and nationality should be the
methods of socialism. "School and education are the only instruments for
molding rational men."

Concluding, the prime minister stressed: "It is not just us, but everyone
who are duty-principles in which they assert their willingness to go into
the rural teaching service for 3 years, anywhere the revolution assigns
them.

Several members of the party Central Committee, officials of the Ministry
of Education and the University of Havana, and representatives of political
and mass organizations attended the ceremony.
-END-