Higher Education in Cuba in the 2000s: Past and Future.

This paper reviews the development of higher education in Cuba and its current status. Current educational development in Cuba is the result of more than four decades of sustained social and political endeavor. Three main features of this development have been identified. The first is the absolute commitment of the state to the educational project. The second is the active participation and decisive involvement of the population in the educational actions that were made in this period, and the third is the capacity for change of the national system of education to provide the best responses to the socioeconomic needs and demands of society. Cuban education is quite different from the rest of Latin American and Caribbean systems, both in the high enrollment at elementary and secondary levels and the high quality of primary and secondary education. Higher education in Cuba is moving from a concept of the university towards the community to one of the university in the community. Higher education is not the solution to all social problems, but it can be a vital part of building a society of greater social equity and justice. (SLD)