SUNS4372 Thursday 11 February 1999

Cuba: Wage rises to stem exodus of professionals

Havana, Feb 9 (IPS/Patricia Grogg) -- A new wage raise for educators in Cuba, and plans for a similar measure in the health sector, are designed to stem the exodus of professionals to other areas of activity, a consequence of the country's eight-year economic crisis.

President Fidel Castro announced a 30% raise for workers in education, seen by the government as a strategic sector in social terms. Education provides jobs for some 200,000 professionals in this country of around 11 million.

Education and health have borne the brunt of the economic crisis that has had its grip on this Caribbean island nation since the beginning of the decade, and of the stiffening of the 37-year-old US embargo against Cuba.

This week's edition of 'Trabajadores', the publication of Cuba's central union, stated that the raise in the salaries of teachers and professors was based on "the assessment that educators are a basic pillar" of the services sector, and of society as a whole. The measure announced last Friday, the publication added, would mean "sacrifices" for the economy, due to the large number of teachers in Cuba.

The main problems suffered by the sector are a shortage of supplies like notebooks, pencils and textbooks, the deterioration of schools and other educational institutions, and salaries that do not even cover the basics. Local analysts cite such problems as the main causes of the emigration of professionals from education to higher-paying jobs in other areas.

"Although in the teaching profession there is work for all graduates, every year around 100 to 150 graduates go into areas that are not linked to their profession," said secretary of the Union of Young Communists (UJC) Otto Rivero.But academics and other experts warn that the phenomenon is not limited to education or health. Many young people in Cuba are abandoning their professions for higher-paying jobs, even employment for which they are over-qualified.

Today it is common to find university graduates running small private restaurants, selling crafts at arts fairs, driving taxis or working as bellhops in hotels.

The majority of professionals fresh out of school in Cuba are obliged by law to provide two years of social service in a job to which they are assigned by the Labour Ministry, in coordination with the university.

At the end of that period, they have the option to remain there or seek another job - the moment at which Rivero said the emigration of professionals peaked. "The biggest exodus to higher-paying jobs, such as in tourism and other highly-developed branches of the economy, or self-employment, is seen after graduates finish their social service," he explained.

"It is true that I have free medical care for my parents, but everything else comes out of the family income. No matter how much I budget, my salary and my father's pension don't stretch far enough," commented a young teacher - who said however that she wouldn't leave her profession "for anything in the world."

The raise in teachers' salaries is aimed at keeping professionals from leaving the sector and undermining the prestige of one of the Cuban government's greatest sources of pride in the social area, stressed the article in 'Trabajadores'. The newspaper stated that the measure was a recognition of the "self-sacrificing work" of teachers in "these years of 'special period' characterised by the enormous scarcity of resources, and whose noteworthy results have been recognised by international educational institutions."

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), for example, reported last December that indexes of quality of education in Cuba were much higher than the Latin American average,
according to a pioneer study that measured language and math skills among third and fourth grade students in 13 countries since 1994.

On a scale of 500, Cuba's results averaged around 350 points, while 10 other nations earned 180 to 280, depending on subject and grade level. 'Trabajadores' also reported that the government has promised, "within
the shortest possible period of time," to increase salaries in the public health sector - another area of major gains since the 1959 revolution.

"This sector has been capable of maintaining, and even improving, public health indexes, with very few resources, while demonstrating its readiness to participate in international missions of great human content in tough and difficult conditions," said the weekly. For example, Cuba sent a team of medical practitioners to Central America after Hurricane Mitch devastated large parts of the subregion in late October and early November.