By: Yodeni Masó Águila (Prensa Latina), in collaboration with EmbaCuba Jamaica
Kingston, Jamaica, 6 May 2020. Amid online classes and isolation due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Cuban teachers ratified today their commitment to professional training in Jamaica, on the occasion of Teacher's Day celebrations in this Caribbean island.
Since the stoppage of teaching activities on March 13, the group of 75 Cuban educators prepare at home their class schedules and exercises, which are later shared by the institutions through the established digital platforms.
Talking to Prensa Latina via internet, Doctor of Science Reynel Isalgué, Head of the Cuban Education Brigade, congratulated all members who, in a high spirit of internationalism and professionalism, continue to write the history of Cuban pedagogy.
Isalgué highlighted how in the adverse conditions posed by Covid-19, Cuban teachers put into practice the results of the educational system of the largest island in the Antilles, despite the current conditions in this brother country.
For Cuban teachers Alberto Hechavarría, Ilbelisa Álvarez and Julio Antonio Pérez, supporting the educational development of the Jamaican people fills them with satisfaction, as faithful exponents of the humanist principle of solidarity.
The three educators talked to Prensa Latina about the value of these missions for the professional and personal training of each of member of the Cuban brigade, since they acquire new knowledge and go deeper into the culture of other countries.
Hechevarría experiences his fourth international mission, after serving in Angola (1982-1984), Botswana (1997-1999) and now for the second time in Jamaica (the first time was between 2004-2006), always linked to the Science department, as a professor of Human and Social Biology.
The Cuban internationalist acknowledged the gratitude showed by the students and teaching staff from the Fair Prospect High School in Long Bay, Portland, in the northeast of the island.
Mrs. Álvarez, a Spanish teacher at the same school, praised the admiration and respect shown by the residents of the community towards Cuban teachers.
For his part, Mr. Pérez, with 32 years of experience in teaching, takes advantage of the benefits of the internet to motivate the learning of Spanish in his seventh-grade students from Tarrant High School in Kingston.
They, like the rest of the Cuban teachers, are guaranteed food and other hygiene products to continue with distance education training in the Jamaican territory.
Since 1988, Jamaica has celebrated Teacher’s Day every first Wednesday in May, as a fair recognition of all builders of the future in this Caribbean nation.