International educators conference held in Cuba

HAVANA - President Fidel Castro told a group of educators from around the world that education can create a better world by helping to resolve social problems, such as the nagging racial discrimination that still exists in Cuba.

Closing the international educators conference here on Friday night, Castro told hundreds of participants that over four decades his socialist government can boast high marks for its primary school programs. But he said secondary education here needs serious improvement.

Beginning in early 2002, Cuba launched a campaign to improve conditions at its primary schools, but reforms for the older students are still pending.

"The future developing of our education will have enormous political, social and human connotations," the Cuban leader said.

Despite the huge changes that the 1959 revolution made in Cuban society, some social problems have not been completely eliminated, including racial discrimination, Castro acknowledged.

"While science shows unquestionably the real equality that exists among human beings, discriminations lives on," especially among the island's poorest groups, Castro said.

Fidel Castro - Cuba

President Fidel Castro reads a statement during the closing of an international conference held in commemoration of the 150th anniversary of Jose Marti's birthday held in a convention hall in Havana, Cuba Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2003. Regarding threats of a war with Iraq by the United States, Castro said the majority of world opinion is against the war. (AP Photo/Cristobal Herrera)

Semester at Sea Program Celebrates 20 Years at Pitt*** The program was among the first to take large groups of students in the early 1980s into mainland China and later, in the mid-1980s, to the former Soviet Union. Other benchmarks during the past 20 years include renewed visits to South Africa in the early 1990s, the inclusion of Vietnam and Cambodia as part of the field component in 1994, and most recently, Cuba since 1999.

During the past two decades, participants have had the opportunity to engage in dialogue with public figures such as Madeline Albright, Corazon Aquino, Peter Arnett, Fidel Castro, Arthur C. Clarke, Mikhail Gorbachev, Nelson Mandela, Mother Teresa, Richard Threlkeld, and Desmond Tutu.

A particularly successful element of Semester at Sea's in-port field program since 1994 has been involvement at the local level of area kindergarten to 12th grade students through the Vicarious Voyage Around the World program. Coordinated through the institute in conjunction with the shipboard administration, groups of three to five Semester at Sea students "adopt" a grade school class and communicate with them throughout the term. Personal exchanges during the voyage provide K-12 students with a very real connection to the experiences of those traveling around the world. Items sent home in "culture packets" - a newspaper, menu, map, stamps, or language brochure - enable the teacher to make the international learning experience come alive in the local classroom. ***

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