Throwing Out the Sofa

Throwing Out the Sofa / Rebeca Monzo
Posted on June 23, 2013

Again, the education sector is marred by scandal: the theft and sale of
the questions for the eleventh grade exams. Apparently all or most of
the municipalities of Havana are involved in this crime.

It is not the first time this has happened, and the media haven't
reported it. As usual, the news comes through the students and their
parents, close to us, almost always neighbors, who have been affected by
these events.

There have been meetings between the teachers and the parents of the
students involved in the various schools, and the approach of the
teaching profession, in my view, is not the most correct, and far from
effective: "Don't give your children so they can't buy the exams. " This
reminds me of the famous story of the cuckolded husband who comes home
and sees his wife snuggling on the sofa with her lover, and, enraged,
decided to throw out the sofa.

Once more, they want to suppress the effects without deeply analyzing
the causes. This has been happening in our schools for many years. It's
not news to anyone, but the State continues to pretend that does not
happen, and continues to offer very favorable statistical figures to
United Nations whose officials disseminate the information without
taking the effort to verify it.

It is more or less the same policy used by public employees in our
country: "The State pretends to pay me and I pretend to work."

As long as the Ministry of Education does not decide to end this fraud
once and for all and demand accountability at all levels, this situation
will repeat itself and the quality and prestige of education in Cuba
will continue to decrease.

According to popular comments, too widespread not to be true, even the
University hasn't escapes this scandal. It is said that they have been
forced to send the entrance exams under guard by the TrasVal ("transfer
of values") Company, which until recently was used, as its name implies,
to guard considerable sums of money and other things of value.

If we "tossing out the couch" and don't denounce these irregularities
and crimes, we would be contributing with our silence even more to the
"downward spiral" into the abyss, to something as important and precious
as education and its prestige. We remember that mistakes in this sector
are paid for over the long-term, when there is virtually no solution.

21 June 2013

Source: "Throwing Out the Sofa / Rebeca Monzo | Translating Cuba" -
http://translatingcuba.com/throwing-out-the-sofa-rebeca-monzo/