Exploring Environmental Education in Cuba

By:  Kathleen Geist
Green Woods Middle School Science Teacher

Few Americans are able to travel legally to Cuba.  In late November, I had the good fortune of being selected to be part of delegation of environmental education professionals, on a trip co-sponsored by NAAEE (North American Association for Environmental Education).  Our goal was to learn more about the environmental education and sustainability initiatives in Cuba.

We had a packed itinerary, ranging from long meetings and PowerPoints with government officials, visits to organic gardening and habitat restoration sites, cultural museums, a rural school, an agricultural college, and more.   We learned that Cuba is amazingly progressive in some areas, and woefully lacking in others.  For example, there are no more incandescent light bulbs on the island; they have all been replaced with compact fluorescents.  A program is now underway to replace all stoves and electric fans with more energy efficient models.  Cuba is working hard to move away from dependence on foreign oil and is moving towards wind and solar power.  There is no commercial advertising; any billboard that is not promoting the Cuban revolution is promoting energy education and recycling.  However, neither the drinking water nor the waste water is adequately treated and most sewage is going directly into the ocean.

Cuba began a major literacy campaign as soon as Batista was overthrown.  School is free for all, but all the schools are government-run.  Every school, even those with only one student (yes, some communities are that isolated) has at least one television for government education programs, and a computer.  We visited a school in a community that had been devastated by Hurricane Ike.  All the families were living together in one tin-roof building while their new houses were being built, and electricity had not yet been restored.  However, their 5-child school had its TV and computer, thanks to solar panels.

The Cubans we met were all very proud of their island’s environmental and educational efforts, however it is still obviously a poor country.   We gave away tennis balls to children who had only a rock in a sock, educational supplies to schools in decrepit physical shape, and toothbrushes and soap to people whose ration cards supplied those essentials less often than needed.  We were impressed by the successes of forest and endangered wildlife restoration efforts, and the quality of education and medical care; we were simultaneously amazed by how much of Cuba still depends on “one horse, one cow, and one ox” in order to survive.

Please view the slideshow below to see pictures of the trip.