-DATE- 19770720 -YEAR- 1977 -DOCUMENT_TYPE- SPEECH -AUTHOR- F.CASTRO -HEADLINE- GRADUATION CEREMONY-MANUEL ASCUNCE DOMENECH TEAC -PLACE- LAZARO PENA AUDITORIUM -SOURCE- HAVANA DOMESTIC SERVICE -REPORT_NBR- FBIS -REPORT_DATE- 19770722 -TEXT- FIDEL CASTRO IN SPEECH DISCUSSES EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM FL202219Y Havana Domestic Service in Spanish 2123 GMT 20 Jul 77 FL [Speech by Cuban President Fidel Castro marking graduation ceremony for the Manuel Ascunce Domenech teacher training detachment held at Lazaro Pena auditorium, Havana--live] [Text] Comrades of the leadership of the party, the government, youths and mass organizations, dear comrades of the first contingent of the Manuel Ascunce Domenech detachment, students, relatives: Five years ago, at the end of the second youth congress in this same theater from this same platform, we issued an appeal to our students to resolve one of the most acute and apparently unsolvable problems we faced in carrying out our educational development. Today, once again demonstrating that time flies and that all noble efforts always have results, we are all attending with pleasure and emotion this first graduation of the members of the contingent, of the members of the detachment. The understand the stimulating significance of this graduation, it is necessary to recall the enormous obstacles which necessary to overcome during these years to reach the present stage in our education system. We believe that no one can truthfully say that any country in Latin America--and we could include the rest of this hemisphere--has achieved such high successes in education as has our country. Of course, we cannot think that all is going well, that there are no differences or anything like that. We could say that the successes achieved thus far demonstrate what we will achieve in the future. Where did we start from, what did we start from? In a country with a 30-percent illiteracy rate and in which the rate of either illiteracy or semiliteracy was 95 percent, some knew how to read a little and did not have to use their fingerprint as their signature but they had a first-grade, a second-grade education. A very high percentage of children, especially in the rural areas, but also in the cities did not have schools or teachers. I do not remember exactly but I believe that there were about 600,000: I do not believe that there were 700,000 primary school students. If things remained that way, practically half the children of that age would have left school. A curious thing: There were 10,000 unemployed teachers. The most difficult thing was to find a teacher to send to the rural areas, especially to send to the mountains. In the capital, there were many unemployed teachers, but it was not easy to have a teacher available in rural areas. Also, then came the intense social struggles experienced in those years. As a result it caused some teachers without employment and some with employment to decide to leave the country. However, with the victory of the revolution, this category of unemployed teachers disappeared. Immediately, thousands of classrooms were opened in all parts of the country. From the first, the struggle to combat illiteracy began. The historic campaign was begun and with the help of the students the situation was resolved. In a year we were able to eradicate almost all illiteracy. Then came the programs to continue one's education, the plans to educate adults, to such an extent that today our central organization of Cuban workers is struggling to have all workers in the country a sixth-grade education by the year 1980. Logically, this great effort had to start with the illiterates and with primary education. The number of those who reached the sixth grade was very low, and consequently so was the number who entered secondary school or the pre-university institute. I'm not talking about technical or polytechnic schools, because they practically did not exist in the country. I believe that the total number of students at the middle educational level was 70,000 and there were about 15,000 universities students. There was a structure of school registration that was very disproportionate and without any relation to the country's needs. This effort which the revolution undertook from the first therefore required a growing number of teachers, above all in the primary schools. There were not enough teachers for both children and adults. They were not enough. It was also necessary to resort to the masses, to the workers' organizations to the Committee for Defense of the Revolution, to the Federation of Cuban Women, to the Association of Small Farmers to recruit citizens with a certain educational level to teach in the schools, after a crash course to train them as teachers. Student registration increased each year. At a given time we had about 2 million in the primary schools, compared with 700,000 before the victory of the revolution. Not only did the growth in population influence that number, not only the fact that schools and teachers appeared suddenly throughout the whole country, but also the fact that there were many who were behind in their education in the past. Children who were 14, 15, 16 years of age were in the fourth or fifth grades. Not only were there children of six different ages together, but there were seven, eight, or ten because of the fact that some were behind in their education. The number of teachers needed for adults and children grew extraordinarily, and the solution was only this: crash courses and teachers without degrees. In this manner in 1969, during the 1969-70 school term, about 70 percent of primary school teachers did not have degrees. To this was added the fact that the first solution we tried to use in the problem of training teachers were not the best. Deeply concerned by the fact that teachers were not available for the rural areas, especially for the most remote areas, we began initially the plan to assign those teachers to the most remote areas, but the material condition and circumstances did not promote the training of the large number of teachers we needed. Therefore, at a given time we changed the plan and adopted the decision to build schools for primary education teachers in all areas of the 14 provinces that does not have its own school for primary education teachers, with truly modern installations in almost all. In a short time, those modern installations that are lacking will be built. At present we have a capacity for 35,000 students in the primary education teacher-training schools. This is the number of students that we have in these training centers--35,000. However, when some problems are solved they cause other problems. In solving the problem of primary education, we had the pressing need to solve the question of secondary education, because when the number of graduating students increased, the number of students graduating from the sixth grade grew like bubbles. What were we going to do with those who graduated from the sixth grade? The country had to solve this problem, in which school were they going to study, we had even going to teach them? If we did not have teachers for the primary schools, we had even fewer teachers for the secondary schools and for the pre-university institutes. Also, during those years, few people from high schools, and those who entered the universities to study education were very few. How were we to solve that problem? At that time the idea of the work-study school, the basic secondary school in the rural areas, emerged. This made the problem even more difficult because not only were teachers needed for the secondary schools, but also for the secondary schools in the rural areas. We could not let these students remain with a sixth-grade education. In the past a sixth-grade education was something, but today it is nothing. I believe that in the near future, those who have only a sixth-grade education will be able to consider themselves illiterate, so to speak. What will a sixth-grade education mean for the learning needed by a society which is progressing dynamically, which makes a progress every day, which changes a world which changes every day, how will a sixth-grade education help one to face these realities? At the same time we reached a situation in which study was becoming universal, and to make education universal in an underdeveloped country, without any oil let us say, from the economic viewpoint it was necessary to make work universal. However, even if we had oil, it would have been highly convenient to make work universal, to be highly trained in all areas, highly revolutionary. It was for such a reason that these ideas were proposed a long time ago by Marx and by Marti. The task of implementing this program required an extraordinary construction effort. It was shown that we could build many schools. At that time some people thought there were too many schools. We were convinced that there were too few schools. We were convinced that there were too few schools. Nonwithstanding the fact that the program spoke of hundreds of schools of that level, in effect we reached a time when 150 schools which could hold 70,000 to 80,000 students were not sufficient to take care of a growth of more than 100,000 students at the secondary school level every year. We did not want to renounce the principle that each child who reached the sixth grade, no matter where he lived, in Baracoa, in the second front, in the Sierra Maesta, in the Caujeri valley, wherever they lived would have the chance to continue his studies. And since the new, and we could even say brand new, schools we were building with a beautiful architecture which was absolutely functional, with all the equipment and laboratories, were not sufficient. It was necessary to resort to other means, to wooden schools such as the ones used to house the canecutters during the harvest. Thus emerged the wooden schools along with the cement schools. But they were not sufficient either. Then it was necessary to resort to any place, a house somewhere, an office somewhere else, wherever, in the small towns, in the cities, to place secondary schools everywhere. The hundred or so schools built by the brigades--and the wooden structures were not sufficient. In a year, around 100 wooden structures were built. It was necessary to seek other installations, and we sought them and adapted them. And it was necessary to seek school materials, chairs, everything needed in a school. Later, the difficulties did not end. Later, it was not 110,000 or 120,000; it was 150,000 who entered the secondary schools. There was not enough of anything. Then, it was necessary to invent once again. We liked the rural boarding schools; without a doubt, they are magnificent schools. Life has proven this. Practice has proven this. Furthermore, they not only have an educational goal, they play a productive role. On the Isle of Pines, for example, there are already 24,000 hectares of citrus fruit. We could not even dream of having those 24,000 hectares of citrus fruit on the Isle of Pines and caring for them without the 40 secondary and pre-university schools which are already on the Isle of Pines. The same is true in Guane, in Jaguey, in Sola and in many places where we have plans for citrus or other plans. However construction materials were not sufficient to build more schools of this kind, to build a larger number. The equipment was not sufficient. The convertible currency to buy some necessary materials was not enough, and we had to face this problem of the sixth-grade graduates. Even by reducing by 1 year, as the middle-level education was reduced by the improvement system, it was not enough. We had to decide to reduce the number of rural boarding schools which were being built every year. We had to do something which we did not want, which we were trying to avoid--to build secondary schools in the cities too. Don't believe that we have given up the idea of having everyone in secondary schools be in rural boarding secondary schools. Understand this well, we are only giving it up for the time being. We said well, of course, many families prefer rural schools. I am convinced of this, that they feel better about them, and it is a kind of aid to the families also, since in the rural boarding schools the students receive their clothes and food, and this reduces the family living expenses. And above all, the students devote more time to studies, are better organized, are better disciplined. And they work. They youth in the cities, unfortunately, goes to a class in the morning and then no one can control him for the rest of the day, or vice versa. Therefore, we continue to build rural secondary and pre-university boarding schools, polytechnic schools. But now we are also building them in the cities. A school in the city where we do not have to build dormitories or other facilities can hold 3,000 students, especially if we have a morning and an afternoon session in the city schools, while a rural boarding school can only hold 600. Even if we know that the quality of this education [in the city] cannot be compared with the other, for this reason we cannot give up the idea that some day at this age, the student will be in rural boarding schools. The day will come when the growth per year will not be like it is now. Now there is an explosion, but it is an atomic explosion to such an extreme that already this term we have 717,000 in secondary schools, and the next term we will have 840,000. Even if we could not have the ideal quality of education, we had to solve the problem. I repeat, we have not stopped building rural boarding schools and similar ones, but we devoted part of these resources to build secondary schools in the cities. You also know that for the rural students, among other things, there is no other solution but the rural boarding schools. They live in isolation. It is impossible to build one secondary school; they would have to walk dozens of kilometers. For this reason we have been basically reserving the rural secondary boarding schools at this stage for those who because they live in the rural areas have no other opportunity to study. Preferably we want to turn them into pre-university students since if now we cannot have all the secondary school students in schools of this kind, we are going to try to have the 90 to 100,000 or 120,000--the number is disputed every day--high school degree students in the rural areas, to have the majority of them in the rural areas. And we are going to try to fulfill the principle of studying work with them, or that principle of the importance of the study of work when everyone studies, thereby avoiding developing a society of intellectuals. It is not that we do not have a society of intellectuals, we want a society of intellectuals but at the same time a society of workers: men and women who know how to work with their minds and with their arms. Socialism is the first opportunity, truly, where everyone can study and everyone can study without limits; don't believe that we want to put limits to study. Do not believe it just because of the fact that there is an admissions limit for the universities. Actually, we do not set the limits. The limits are imposed by the number of facilities we have and the number of university professors we have. For this wave hit us in successive states: First there was the wave of primary [school students] followed by the wave of secondary [school students] or explosion or whatever you want to call it. And then came the university explosion. By this school year we already had 105,000 university students and we are going to have 150,000 by 1980. However, there is no solution yet for all the youths and workers who hope to undertake university studies. I have spoken about these things on previous occasions. We also hope that university education can be universalized. What does this mean? To offer each citizen the opportunity to take university studies, although not all in regular classes since everyone understands that it would be practically impossible to have a million university students taking regular courses. There is the possibility of studying through other means. It could be by means of directed studies, which demonstrated their possibilities in practice. Therefore, each citizen in our country should have a real opportunity to undertake university studies. The problem of the world today teach us certain things. All those goals and objectives of developed capitalist societies cannot be our objectives. They launched themselves on a search for luxuries in all fields and with the idea of each family with an automobile consequences of all this. In the first place, this cannot be a model of any type for the rest of the world, for the countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America. Can you imagine every citizen of India with an automobile and each citizen of China with an automobile and every citizen of African struggling to have an automobile? Obviously, if petroleum, as it is said, will last a few years, just scores of years, I want to know how long petroleum would last in the world if the billions of inhabitants of this planet devote themselves to thinking of those dreams, those models of development. No, the countries of the so-called Third World, of Asia, Africa and Latin America cannot use their gasoline in automobiles simply because they have to use it to produce nitrogenous fertilizers to produce foodstuffs, textile materials to produce clothing, shoes and materials of all types and an infinite number of essential products, indispensable for life. If we were to make a society of automobiles in the future there would not be a single ton of fertilizer with which to cultivate sugarcane and produce foodstuffs because the fertilizers come precisely from naphtha. Industry requires fuel oil. Transportation requires other more light fuels. But gasoline is a raw material in our case and when we build new refineries the gasoline produced by those refineries must be used to produce fertilizers and for the petrochemicals we need because an essential ingredient in the production even of soap comes from petrochemical products. Our peoples cannot let themselves be driven by those sweet songs and by those insanities of those societies which today do not know what their future will be. They do not know. And they continue to build automobiles because if they do not produce them they then have unemployment and if they have unemployment they have a crisis, and so forth. It is a vicious circle. Well, then, we believe that our society--along with material development, constant and as great a possible improvement in housing, recreation, nutrition, clothing, shoes; in other words, along with the constant improvement of the indispensable material goods--has the possibility for an extraordinary enhancement of man in the cultural and spiritual fields. This is so because one does not have a university degree just because the title makes one able to work on something, but because of the immense personal satisfaction that knowledge gives and to certify such knowledge. Of course, one does not get a university degree to exhibit it, but the degree means that the knowledge upon which it is based has been systematically tested. Of course, a university degree is not a personal piece of property; it is a measure of the knowledge of persons, of the cultural, educational, technical, professional and scientific development of a human being. Naturally, if in future Cuban society hundreds of thousands or millions of persons have university degrees, it does not mean--we have said this other times--that each can be given a job according to his degree. But if someone drives a tractor and he wants to be an engineer, because he wants to be an engineer and takes all pertinent studies and gets his degree even if he continues with his tractor...[Castro does not complete thought] of course, I am convinced of one thing. An engineer gets much more productivity out of a tractor and drives it much better. I speak of this: We believe that no one's desire to systematically take higher educational studies should be restricted. That is why we say that what imposes limits today is the number of facilities and the number of professors. But I believe that our society will be able to give enough of itself to continue expanding those capabilities at the universities and the number of the university professors in such a way that, apart from regular studies, everyone who wants to take directed studies can do so. And we know the satisfaction that is gained from studies because many of the comrades of the government, ministers and members of the Poliburo are studying. They are taking higher education studies. They are not doing this for a financial goal; they are doing it to acquire more knowledge, to be more efficient in their work and in understanding problems. And I know how happy those comrades of different ages feel when they take an examination and do well in it and when they get a good grade. Therefore, there is a certain satisfaction from study and it is of great importance for a human being. And we could say that socialism does not offer and will not offer every citizen the opportunity to have an automobile, but it will offer him the extremely honorable opportunity to take higher educational studies for his greatest preparation, his greatest efficiency at work regardless of its type and, above all, for his deepest personal satisfaction. There is another factor that promotes study and it is that everyone is studying. New generations come with new cultures. Man has a certain spirit of emulation. No one wants to stay in the sixth grade. Besides, with a sixth-grade education he is not going to understand 80 recent of the things he reads. He is not going to be satisfied with a basic secondary or pre-university schooling. That is a certainty and it can be seen. And life itself, society itself itself in its development will demand from each citizen and maximum of knowledge. That is why we will struggle to insure that opportunity in one way or another can exist for all the country's citizens. And I repeat that this does not imply that there will be a job for every degree. This is impossible. Personal records are already taken into consideration for regular studies today. The day will come when there will be too many doctors, too many engineers, too many economists, and I do not know when there will be too many because we cannot think only of ourselves. Who trains doctors for Africa? Who is training them? Well, we are, and also engineers and technicians. There is an enormous world. There is an enormous world. And I cite Ethiopia as an example--35 million inhabitants, 125 doctors. to have the level we have they need 40,000. Ah, and [how about] the public health condition in which imperialism left that country: 150,000 lepers, 450,000 with tuberculosis, 7 million with malaria and 14 million persons with varying degrees of eye infection. Tell me if they need or do not need doctors, farmers, engineers, agronomists, veterinarians, everything. Tell me if they need then or not. And that is the situation in a large part of the world. Of course, in order to go as a doctor to any African country one must be above all a revolutionary and that is they type of technician our country is developing, precisely that type of man. In the past we did not have doctors to send even to Baracoa because it was too far. There were no doctors to send even to rural areas. And we already have doctors to send to Africa and other countries and other continents. Naturally, our country is a small one. We are not oil producers, as we have said. We could not carry the economic burden of sending tends of thousands of technicians to those countries, but there is always a way. Some who have more resources can pay some compensation. those who have none would simply [provide] housing and food and we here will pay the salary. And cooperation between several countries in the world could emerge to help a third country. Some could provide the technicians, others could provide the financing. In any case, we know that the world is going to need the technicians we are developing. We are convinced of this. There can be compensation in one way or another. What is received on the one hand can be donated on the other. In other words, it is possible but it does not mean that we can carry the economic burden of all this, but there are many formulas. I am therefore convinced, I am convinced that, for example, there is never going to be a doctor surplus here. To cite an example: We now have one doctor per 900-odd inhabitants. However, we do not have a doctor on each fishing boat. We do not have a doctor on each merchant ship. We do not have a doctor at each factory and it would be [good] to have a doctor at each important factory on a permanent basis. We do not even have a doctor at each school. There are places in this country were doctors could be assigned, but above all there are places outside this country. And the same will happen with other types of technicians. I mentioned the case of Ethiopia. We are providing it with medical assistance now and a brigade of more than 300 doctors and public health assistants is being sent to Ethiopia. Doctors alone total some 140. Our country has those doctors that go to Ethiopia or wherever just as it has engineers and university professionals or any other type who are willing to go anywhere. We must not think of our needs alone. We must think of the needs of billions of human beings in this world. And so you know how much a Western European doctor charges in an African country? From $2,000 to $3,000 monthly. And even then they do not come out. They do not always come out. But the type of revolutionary communist technician that our revolution is developing is available. [applause] I have mentioned these things to emphasize the importance which, in our judgment, studies and higher education have and these ideas of making a reality of the principle that every man being who wants to take such studies can do so even if he will not have a material need of them in order to live. Problems similar to those I have mentioned concerning secondary and pre-university education also emerged in technical and professional education. And a detachment also emerged. It is not too large. It is a very small teachers training detachment but it already has 1,500 in the first contingent. I believe the second one has as many. That problem is already emerging. Of course, the universities need to train many of their graduates as professors. They ask and demand and we must grant them. They keep a certain percentage of the graduates. Do not think these are going into the economy. I am not referring to the university centers of the Education Ministry because these keep everyone, absolutely all. [laughter] They are all in education. Some are employed as professors at teachers training institutes, others are sent to secondary schools. But other technicians, economists, engineers are sought after by many people and the university claims its portion because it says: I am growing, I am growing. From where am I going to get professors? Therefore, the university is producing professors for itself. I imagine that later these professors will get a scientific or other degree. The idea of the detachment has served to solve other problems in other areas of education. This general picture since the early years which I have been describing has changed much, more. And it is encouraging, gratifying. It could be said that as a Cuban one feels proud to see the advances made knowing that we are one-third of the way. Yes, we are practically beginning. But now, how many persons do we have studying to be teachers? I bet you cannot guess. [laughter] Even I am amazed and I always carry educational and other data. Among students under the regular systems: there are the 35,000 in teacher schools, superior institutes of which we already have eight superior teacher training schools for training teachers of secondary, pre-university and similar schools, one for training teachers for technical schools and a superior language institute. And if we add the detachment which before your graduation already had 19,000, more than 19,500, almost 20,000--you can estimate the strength--the total in regular studies amount to 67,000 and 78,000 in directed studies. There are presently a total of 145,000 persons in Cuba being trained as teachers, 145,000. This is a respectable figure. [all figures as heard] In 1970 we had 70 percent of the primary school teachers without certificates and now it is just 40 percent and in 3 more years there will not be a single primary school teacher without a certificate. In 3 more years. This has been estimated mathematically. Ninety-six point 6 percent of primary school teachers without certificate are studying to get it. What an advance. In 3 years 100 percent of the primary school teachers will be certified. And do you know how many primary school teachers we have now? Eighty-one thousand. I do not even remember how many we had before the revolution, but perhaps someone around here knows. However, I do not believe they reached 20,000. [Someone tells Castro the correct figure] Twenty-two thousand at all levels. Well, at all levels we have 184,000 at this time. [applause] And, I repeat, by 1980 all primary school teachers will be certified. Do you think we are going to remain there? No. That is why I saying that we are just beginning. A plan is already under way in response to the primary school teachers' aspiration to have the opportunity to take higher educational studies. This was given much emphasis at the education and culture congress and as yet there has been no reply. But the reply is here now for the primary school teacher who wants to take higher educational studies. It is a program that will begin to be implemented with the current teachers who have a minimum of 3 years of service and have a certificate as primary school teacher. The opportunity will be to systematically study to get a degree in primary school education. Therefore, our teachers will be able to seek that degree. This is something very important. Naturally, today many teachers, in the face of the need for secondary-school teachers, were given the opportunity to study at a teacher-training institute although it is not a logical thing because two different teachings are involved, two different ages, each of which requires its specialist [sentence as heard]. So far this opportunity has been given to primary school teachers because sometimes there is a tendency to underestimate the role of a primary school teacher and that this knowledge does not have to be at the university level. However, if one analyzed the importance of the children at that age and of the teacher to the children, the importance of education at the stage in their lives, one would realize that a primary school teacher must be a specialist of the highest possible level. And a primary school teacher should have a goal, an aspiration, that high goal of getting a primary school education degree and to teach first grade, yes, first grade, where the treatment of children has such an enormous importance, and to specialize as a primary school teacher. At first, you can see this, one did not have to be a secondary school graduate to enter a school for primary teachers. Such students entered from the sixth grade. Now we are a little more rich in graduates, we already have more graduates from the sixth grade and basic secondary schools, and we are going to have them from pre-university schools. You must reckon that we are rationing them. For this reason we discuss how many. First it was 90,000 and by now it is already around 110,000. We have been analyzing the advantage that there are some more admissions available in certain university faculties. We need more baccalaurate graduates. Of course, all this must be based on the students' school records, and can only be based on their school records. All this has promoted a greater concern about their studies among students of primary and secondary schools; they know that the options to study one thing or another must be won with their study and their behavior. This helps education. Now those who enter the schools for primary education teachers are from the basic secondary level and they study 4 years. We are going to do the same with the detachment. We are now doing the same with the detachment. We are trying to have 6,000 from the pre-universities level enter the detachment. They are going to have a different life already. The first 2 years they will study basic courses, theory courses, not practice teaching. I do not know how the Education Ministry will use them, whether it will give them a uniform. Anyway, it is a shame that such an encouragement image as the detachment comrades in each one of the schools might disappear in the future. However, if we replace them with very good teachers, if we replace them with very good teachers, then it does not matter if they dress as you are dressed in the graduation ceremony. [applause] Now, the ministry is rich in higher education institutes, in students, in the dozens or hundreds of thousands of people studying. The ministry is rich. Furthermore, it more or less continues to debate with the government and party how many enter [Fidel laughs, as does audience] the pre-university institutes every year. Of course we cannot run the risk of training too many baccalaurates to the detriment of the other careers, of the technoligic institutes. We must train our youths in a balanced manner and in different fields. Anyway, we are planning to increase the number of admissions in the pre-universities, which I repeat will preferably be rural boarding pre-university institutes. If the students cannot go during their secondary school years, then they will go during their pre-university years. But I repeat, the day will come when all will go to secondary rural boarding schools, all. Then the schools--quite good ones--which we are building in the cities as secondary schools can be used as primary schools, which we really need. [applause] We really need...[applause] Those schools we are building in the rural areas [Fidel means cities] will not be in excess, for sure. You have to see how primary schools are in many places; they are very poor ones. For this reason now if we cannot improve the primary schools we will improve the primary school teachers and we will improve the textbooks and we will implement the plan to improve the educational system. Our primary schools can improve much in quality, very much. We have not forgotten you. There is a plan for you. [laughter] It is easy. The hardest part has already passed. [laughter] There is a plan concerning an opportunity to complete higher studies. It is a plan which the ministry is making so that you can have your degree in 2 years, because now you are secondary school teachers, and life has another degree for you, and maybe graduation. [prolonged applause] With only 2 more years you could have the degree of licentiate in education. [laughter] The purpose of this long account I made is to stress the great importance of this graduation. How could we have resolved the difficult problems we faced with schools, materials, sites, the whole tragedy of it, without the teachers. This was no longer a matter of cement, bricks, wood, equipment, foreign exchange, and so on. This was a problem of people. How to resolve the problem of teachers. Following traditional methods, it would have taken us 30 years, 30 at least until we could have all the teachers we needed. I would say that we have made 25 years of progress with the teachers training detachment. [prolonged applause] I was telling you that this year we are going to have 840,000; in 1980 it is said we are going to have 1.3 million in the secondary schools. When! [laughter] 1.3 million, how could we have solved this problem without the detachment. [prolonged applause] And how could we have been able to have a detachment without revolutionary youth. [prolonged applause] In the past, I said that we already had technicians prepared to go anywhere, since the youths had demonstrated this already in 1961 when 100,000 were mobilized for the literacy campaign. Now, when the revolution called, the youths also presented themselves in numbers sufficient to solve the problem. And today we have this detachment of almost 20,000 youths. I warn you that we know well that many of the best students in the 10th grade went to the detachment. We know this well, it was the youth who was a student leader [laughter], a youth leader or so on who was always preaching that one had to enter the detachment. [prolonged applause] Many cadres of youth and student organizations entered the detachment. Many good students, many vanguard students. There is always the student who wants to be the first, and is determined to. No, it isn't that he wants to. No one wants to be first, but he is determined to be first when it is necessary to be the first. [applause] Many vanguard students entered the detachment. I told Comrade Fernandez [education minister]: Fernandez, you are taking the best among the students. [laughter] Well, it reached the point where even I protested over how many they wanted for the detachment. I said: 8,000 and who are you going to leave to study something else? The number increased and increased among the 10th grade students. There was a time when they were few; we still remembered when there were too few. Now we think there are too many who already graduate here and there. At a given time, up to 8,000 youths entered the detachment. When I said that I protested that was only a joke. [laughter] I said it as a joke to Comrade Fernandez. [laughter] This is how the detachment was created and this is how it contributed to solving a very difficult problem, also demonstrating once again that among the people and the masses, there are always solutions to problems. [applause] And here once again is proven the enormous importance of the level of political and revolutionary conscience of the masses. We can never state this enough because everything which is done in the sense will be too little. Today, our people reflect this conscience in everything they do: they reflect it in the internationalist soldier; they reflect it in the internationalist technicians and professionals; they reflect it in the youths, in work, in their work centers, in their efforts, in any mobilization undertaking. You see how even among those students who study and work, many went 3 weeks to weed the sugarcane fields in the interior of the country and the provinces. [applause] These students who even if they are not in the work-study system, work during a period of the year as part of the rural boarding schools plan. Now in the summer, when the sun in hotter, they clean the canefields, mobilizing by the masses in homage to the festival and to help the country. There are many examples of those who reflect the value of the political conscience, of policitical education and of the revolutionary conscience. When these exist, there is a reply to everything, there is a solution to everything. You, who are graduating here, are for us the pioneers of this detachment, the first, the ones who began the experiment, those who demonstrated that the solution was correct, for in these 3 years, truthfully, I have not heard anyone complain of the quality of the detachment's comrades. [prolonged applause] As a group, as a collective, you have acquired great prestige. To tell the truth the basic secondary rural boarding schools have had a very good percentage of students graduating from one grade to the other during the past few years. When a school, when in a school the collective of teachers did not have a student from the detachment, the teachers always regretted it very much because the students of the detachment were the solution to the problem, guided by good teachers, unselfish teachers who by making great sacrifices agreed to work in the basic secondary rural boarding schools. However, without you, without your youth, without your preparedness to go to the necessary schools, we could never have had the teachers for these schools. We could never have built those basic secondary rural boarding schools and have implemented this system of work and study which is so revolutionary, we could not have developed, apart from this, the plans of Jaguey, of the Isle of Pines, of Ciego de Avila, of Pinar del Rio, of the whole country. This would not have been possible. You have made it possible, first, for the revolution to fulfill the principle that every youth will have the opportunity to continue studying beyond the sixth grade, that no child in our mountains or our rural areas will remain without a secondary school. You have contributed to the implementation of the work-study system in these schools. And at the same time, you have gained many experiences which have helped the rest of the detachment, the whole detachment, which will be very useful in the future years. You have enabled these very revolutionary methods of education to be successful. For this reason all of us feel truly satisfied and happy to be able to attend this first graduation. We say this with much feeling. You have many responsibilities ahead of you, you are extraordinarily young and you will have gained much experience and knowledge by the time you are over the age of 25. I can assert that no country has such a numerous group of youths with your spirit and enthusiasm and with the preparation you are acquiring and can acquire from now on. It is not just because of the 2 years [presumably of university education], but also because of that process of continuous improvement throughout life which should be a law for each teacher and professor. I am certain that nothing will give you more personal satisfaction or respect for your compatriots than the capability you are able to achieve, the knowledge you are able to accumulate and the improvement you can make throughout the many years of life you still have ahead. This type of satisfaction is not gained from any material well-being, and you can see the result of your efforts. It has been 5 years. It seems like yesterday, since the detachment was created and you are the first graduates who now will go on to work in schools as respectable teachers of higher [as heard] education. [prolonged applause] What satisfaction and pride this represents for your relatives, your neighbors, your comrades and your students. You will feel much emotion when you return to the classroom as teachers. You will be the first to do so from this formidable revolutionary force. Although I do not know about the uniforms or whether or not the detachment that will go to the predagogic [institute] will have uniforms [laughter] or what it will be like during those 6 months, but the detachment will continue and the others, those who are now going to the superior institute as pre-university students, will continue to be part of the Manuel Ascunce Domenech detachment. But do not be concerned, you are more advanced than they are. [laughter] You have 5 years of experience and 5 years of studies. They have before them 3 years of pre-university studies. Now, in 2 years when they will be reaching the third year you will have nothing less than a degree in education. [laughter, applause] Do not be discouraged by anything, you are ahead, the entire detachment, all the first five contingents of the detachment. Well, the one on its first year is tied because I think it has 4 and then 2 and the others have 5. At least you are ahead [words indistinct due to applause]. All of you will have an advantage: 5 years of experience. The ones who now join the detachment for the first time will come out with a pre-university education, but they will not teach classes for 2 years, and I was asking Fernandez: Are you sure you are not going to have to also resort to those boys before the 2 years are up? I do not know. Of course, they are counting on you and it is counting on the primary school teachers who are studying at the pedagogic institute. And counting them all, the total is more than 30,000, but I do not know if it is enough. This shows that the problem has been essentially resolved. I asked Fernandez: Fernandez, what is it that interests you most about these comrades who are graduating? [laughter] and, as if he were reading my mind, he took out a small piece of paper and said: this. And I brought it with me. [laughter] It contains six points. They are quite brief, you know, but you know what they mean. Number one: He is interested in your work as teachers, your systematic daily preparation, fulfillment of study plans and progress, problems of student organization, example, punctuality, order, continuous educational work, that you be demanding on all directives and standards. Number two: Social and personal property and the need for its good use and care and prevention of its loss or theft. Number three: Fraud problems and an attitude of anathematizing in all our work--it says here anathemizing and I say anathematizing--[laughter] that distorting dishonesty, [applause] education and vigilant attitude of all teachers. Number four: Problem of promotion, its quality and requirements. Number five: Standards of conduct, the so-called formal education, behavior, respect, consideration and correct attitude toward all others. Number six: Communist development, ideological development and political development of youths and the duty of a teacher and the entire group of teachers. These are the six points. All of us can subscribe to these six points. And we believe that you sincerely subscribe to them. [applause] To tell you the truth, we have much confidence in you. We know you have responded and acted, unfortunately, not all reached the goal. One thousand four hundred two started and 900 and graduating today. Actually, it is a high number, [of graduates] and quality is always expressed in percentages. This demonstrates your tenacity, your will and your perseverance. You were able to keep up and persevere. You were able to overcome all the difficulties. That is why I believe that this 20 July is to be a truly happy and emotional day for all of you. We have heard your serious profound oath, if you want, I could add to it the six points so that you can endorse them. Is that all right, Fernandez? You can use a little clip to attach them to it so that you can endorse them, is that all right, Fernandez? You can attach them to it with a little clip. [laughter] We no longer treat you as students, we already treat you as almost professors. [laughter] Those up there [presumably on the balcony] and those in back, all of you, as respectable professors. [laughter, applause] It only remains for me to say that we have practically seen you grow. You are almost as old as the revolution, younger than the Moncada and more or less the age of the Graham. You who took the oath as teachers, like those who a few days ago at Revolution Plaza took the oath as officers in our armed forces, are sons of the revolution [prolonged applause] and the revolution is proud of its sons. Fatherland or death, we shall win. [prolonged applause] -END-