NIURKA MARIA GONZALEZ ORBERA has been the general secretary of the National Union of Education Workers in Cuba for the past five years. 

It is Cuba’s largest union with over half a million members, and one of the most important unions on the island taking into consideration the centrality of education to the development of the Cuban Revolution.

Here Gawain Little from the NEU spoke to Niurka in advance of her visit to the National Education Union conference in Bournemouth where she will be a special guest and keynote speaker.

How has the Covid pandemic affected your work? 

Like all countries, Cuba has experienced the negative effects of the Covid pandemic. But I am pleased to say that we have managed to control the situation thanks to the action of our wonderful Cuban scientists who have developed our own set of vaccines that have allowed us to immunise the population from the age of two years upwards.

However the negative impact of the blockade and its extraterritorial component has been aggravated and made even crueller in the context of the confrontation with the Covid-19 pandemic. 

The blockade has hindered voluntary solidarity donations, sought to hinder the development of Cuban vaccines and limited the possibilities of access to medicines and basic supplies.

Why is education so important to Cuba’s revolutionary process ?

Fidel Castro, in his testimony, History Will Absolve Me, defined the main problems that afflicted Cuba before January 1959, among them education. 

The new government and the Cuban people, worked to achieve what today is a social conquest and a right for all.

The achievements are the result of a long road of transformations which, since the triumph of the revolution, has focused on the human being, childhood, youth and adulthood, and offers the possibility for the entire population to have access to education free of charge. 

This year is the anniversary of the Alphabetisation campaign of 1960. Can you tell us a little about this campaign?

In 1960, an army of literacy educators with lanterns and stoves in hand went to the remotest places of the country so that no Cuban would be left without knowing how to read and write. 

As a result, on December 22 1961, Cuba was declared the first illiteracy-free territory in the Americas. Six months earlier, the Law for the Nationalisation of Education had put an end to private education and archaic educational methods to make way for a new way of educating. 

The literacy campaign was the most important battle of those early years.

When Joe Biden was elected there was some optimism about improving US-Cuba relations. Has this happened?

Unfortunately the new US administration continued with the Trump era policies. 2020-21 was marked by further setbacks including a progressive tightening of the blockade. 

In 2020 alone, 55 new measures were applied against Cuba, adding to the 243 measures imposed by the Trump administration. 

The blockade is very much still in place today and the numerous regulations and provisions issued by the US government against Cuba have reached unprecedented levels of hostility. 

Lawsuits filed under Title III of the Helms-Burton Act; the increased targeting of financial and commercial transactions with Cuba; the ban on flights from the US to all Cuban provinces except Havana; and the discrediting campaign against Cuban medical co-operation programmes are some of the most distinctive examples. These affect all Cubans inside and outside the country.

The blockade is a measure that violates international rights, interferes in the internal affairs of the island of Cuba and violates the principle of the independence of a nation and the human rights of Cubans.

How does the blockade affect education in Cuba?

The state allocates 155,478 million pesos to education, which represents 69 per cent of the budgeted activity, however, the services it provides are damaged in every way by the blockade. 

In pre-schools provision of toys and teaching materials are limited. In regular primary and secondary education, we lack basic supplies, including paper for printing books and materials. 

We have insufficient availability of computers and televisions for the teaching-learning process due to the impossibility of acquiring them and the necessary parts to repair those that are affected by continued use.

In arts education, it has not been possible to acquire musical instruments such as guitars, flutes, audio equipment, among others. It has also been difficult to acquire literature by English-speaking authors and specialised English dictionaries for the subject of English.

It is a particularly cruel aspect of the blockade that affects our special education services which also affects our aim to achieve full social inclusion of these students. 

For example, it has not been possible to acquire accessories such as electric wheelchairs for children who cannot use a conventional wheelchair. 

We face the deterioration and unavailability of Perkins braille machines, which effects the learning of a high percentage of students with visual impairment. 

It cannot be right that the education of children is so affected by the decisions and actions being taken by the United States government.

Do you have any final comments before your visit to Britain?

Despite all these difficulties, we have been able to count on the support and solidarity of friends in unions in Britain, like you here in the National Education Union, as well as our friends in the Cuba Solidarity Campaign. 

I would like to thank you all for recently sending around 8,000 musical instruments through the Play For Cuba Campaign in 2018, and  for the donation of more than 40 braille machines to Cuba in recent years.

I know that you are making new efforts with the Viva la Educacion appeal to provide resources to our children, teachers and union leaders. This will be an important contribution to the service of education in Cuba.

I want to reaffirm that Cuba, this small Caribbean island, blockaded for more than 60 years by the biggest power in the world, has resisted, and will continue to resist, for as many years as necessary, that we will never surrender, that we will continue to share what we have: solidarity, peace, unity, knowledge, health and much love, and that we will continue to show the world that it is possible when there is unity of a people together with the government and the highest leadership of the country, to continue building our social project for all.

Find out more and support the Viva La Educacion Appeal: www.vivaeducacion.org.uk.