The photographic exhibition ‘Fidel es Fidel’ with images by photographer and documentary filmmaker, Roberto Chile, was opened prior to the activity. It shows the revolutionary leader during the last years of his administration.
With a full hall, Diker presented data supporting the educational development on the island in which Fidel Castro’s principle that education is for everyone, prevails.
The university rector recalled that in 1959, the year of the triumph of the Revolution, about 56 percent of children attended classes and only 28 of teenagers studied in high school, while 53 of the population was illiterate.
She recalled that in 1960 during a speech at the UN General Assembly, Fidel Castro promised that Cuba would be free of illiteracy in one year. That feat was achieved in 1961 with an extensive literacy campaign.
In addition, the result of those efforts and resources assigned to the educational promotion by the revolutionary government were highly recognized when the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) conducted in 1997 an evaluation of the school results of students from the Latin American countries, Diker said.
Fidel Castro insisted that a revolution is not complete without education. He saw education as an indispensable tool for sustenance, the president concluded.
For his part, former legislator and director of the CCC, Juan Carlos Junio, stated that Fidel Castro interpreted and applied education and culture as key elements of liberation, to conspire ignorance that leads to the submission and alienation of a society.
Journalist and political commentator, Eduardo Aliverti, another of the speakers, praised the figure of the Cuban leader through anecdotes. Secretary General of the Communist Party of Argentina, Patricio Echegaray, was responsible for the closing of the activity.
