Great Bay:--- Public School Managers gathered together at the Oranje School Thursday morning for a meeting with the visiting Cuban delegation here on a fact-finding mission to explore possible areas of bilateral cooperation in the areas of sports, education and culture.Acting Head of Public Education Services of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, and Youth Affairs, Mrs. Glenderlin Davis-Holiday, welcomed the five-member, all-female
delegation to the school after the Principal, Mrs. Kay-linda Philips, had received them.
The school managers were very interested in how Cuba's education system is set up, particularly at the elementary level. Dr. Marlene Esther Daley Gonzalez, Vice Chancelor of Research and Post-Graduate Studies at the University of Pedagogical Sciences Santiago de Cuba, Cuba, gave an overview of the system, with her colleagues chipping in to explain specific aspects such as Physical Education which is a compulsory subject in the school curriculum and is considered as important as Mathematics or any other subject.
The school period in Cuba goes from 8:00AM until 4:30PM with a break for lunch for those students whose parents are working, while those students whose parents do not work would go home at 12:00 for lunch and return to school at 2:00PM until 4:30PM. Education is free at all levels and is compulsory up till pre-university (18 years old).
Parental involvement in the education of the child is fundamental and one of the key factors in the success of the Cuban system, the school managers were told, with a school for parents that seeks to ensure that parents can help their children with homework and other studies at home.
The lively exchange of ideas was held in a very friendly atmosphere, with the Cubans impressed by the passion and dedication to excellence the school managers demonstrated and also by the fact that they were all female.
At the St. Dominic High School, Principal Jose Verschueren-Sommers said since the delegation had been meeting all week with adults, she thought it would be interesting if they could have a face to face encounter with some of the island's students, hence the invitation to a group of her students, some of whom were of Spanish-speaking backgrounds.
The delegation was very appreciative of this twist and answered the various questions posed primarily by the students.
The Principal expressed interest in a student exchange program that would permit students from the school to visit Cuba and spend some time there with their counterparts. One student wanted to know if school teams could go to Cuba to compete against other schools there.
In response, the delegation leader, Dania Mesa Valenciano replied that all of these ideas are possible within the framework of a still to be negotiated agreement between the relevant ministries in both countries.
The delegation, which has already given a preliminary report of their visit to the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports and Youth Affairs, Dr. Rhoda Arrindell, departs Friday.
