The Militant (logo)  

Vol. 71/No. 16      April 23, 2007

 
Teachers’ training school opens in
Equatorial Guinea with assistance from Cuba
 
BY OLYMPIA NEWTON  
A teachers’ training school staffed by Cuban internationalist volunteers opened in Bata, Equatorial Guinea, March 16. A press release from the Cuban consulate in the West African country noted that the school signifies a “qualitative and quantitative step for the educational system of Equatorial Guinea.”

Equatorial Guinea, an oil-rich nation with 540,000 people, has a primary school student-teacher ratio of 43 to 1. According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), only 24 percent of the high school-aged population was enrolled in secondary education in 2004.

The program is part of an agreement between the governments of the two countries under which Cuban internationalists train Equatoguineans to become biology, chemistry, math, and physics teachers. It is carried out under the auspices of UNESCO.

The Cuban volunteer teachers join more than 140 Cuban medical personnel serving internationalist missions in the African country, aimed at collaborating with Equatoguineans in establishing and running their own health-care system. Cuban volunteers staff a medical school in Bata, and a number of Guinean students are studying medicine in Cuba.

Eight days after the program’s inauguration, the Association of Equatoguinean Graduates from Cuba (ASEGEC) held an event at the Agricultural Training School in Malabo. The ASEGEC decided to organize its members to attend scientific, cultural, and solidarity events in Cuba, and to visit the Cuban universities where its members studied. It also set November 27 as a Day in Solidarity with Cuba.

ASEGEC members also participated in a March 12 activity in solidarity with the Cuban Five, according to a press release from the Cuban consulate there. The program, held at the Cuban Embassy in Malabo, featured clips of the movie “Cuba: the Untold Story,” as well as speeches on the campaign to win freedom for the five Cuban internationalists imprisoned in the United States.

“Looking at the actions of the United States against Cuba,” said Francisco Nchama, an Equatoguinean graduate from Cuba, “and now what they do in Iraq and Afghanistan, shows these acts are common to what they do.” José Nguema, president of ASEGEC and coordinator of the Group in Solidarity with the Five, spoke about the need to increase efforts and actions to win freedom for the five.  
 
 
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