Fidel Castro and education: A living legacy in the year of his centenary

Havana, Jan. 2  — Cuba and the world welcome 2026, facing the challenge of preserving and perfecting hard-won social achievements within an especially complex context. The nation confronts material shortages, continuation of U.S. hostility, and daily effort to sustain the country amid a profound electricity crisis.

In this scenario of tension and resistance, Cuba reaffirms its determination to move forward without renouncing its principles, defending as a priority the achievements of essential sectors such as education — a historical and moral pillar of the social project born with the Revolution’s triumph.

This year marks the centenary of Fidel Castro Ruz’s birth and the 67th anniversary of the Cuban Revolution’s triumph. Education emerges as one of the most solid and enduring pillars of his thought and revolutionary work. Rooted deeply in José Martí’s ideas, Fidel conceived education not only as an inalienable human right, but as a shared social responsibility: every person who comes into the world has the right to be educated and the moral duty to contribute to the education of others.

Fidel’s early closeness to Martí’s ideas, together with his family education and hardships experienced during his school years, awakened in him an insatiable passion for learning. From a young age, he understood that only a cultured people can guarantee a prosperous and truly free future for the nation. This conviction decisively shaped his political and revolutionary path.

Following the Revolution’s triumph on January 1, 1959 — a date remembered with pride by Cubans this week—the drive to expand education was immediate. Fidel often stated that the worst thing that can be done to a child is to deprive them of education. In keeping with that belief, one of the first major initiatives of the new revolutionary government was the Literacy Campaign.

It was followed by the struggle to achieve higher levels of schooling, the training of volunteer teachers, the University Reform of 1962, and sustained expansion of the educational system throughout the country. As noted by specialist Lesbia Cánovas, these transformations constitute a true feat of the Cuban people, always guided by Fidel’s unquestionable vision.

Mass access to knowledge and educational development were closely linked to advances in information and communication technologies. According to Dr. Iván Barreto Gelles, director of the Company for Informatics and Audiovisual Media Cinesoft, this reality was made possible through Fidel’s foresight.

Even in the most difficult moments—such as the Special Period of the 1990s—he defended the need to invest resources in science and technology as pathways toward a prosperous and sustainable nation. From that stage emerged the Scientific Pole and the extension of technological development to all universities, ensuring that today, even in the most remote mountain schools, televisions and computers are present.

Thanks to that strategic vision, Cuba became a country of men and women of science. Yet Fidel’s educational legacy is not limited to structures or programs; it is also expressed in his deep and heartfelt relationship with young people. He always sought spaces for dialogue with new generations, calling on them to transform and create, to study history as the essential path to becoming revolutionaries through their own conscience—not as mere repeaters of empty slogans.

In the year marking his centenary, the life and thought of Fidel Castro must continue to be an integral part of Cuban classrooms, not as distant history but as a living reference. Through study, reflection, and dialogue, new generations can find in his legacy a source of ethical conviction, intellectual rigor, and human commitment. Thus, his name and ideals will endure where they matter most: in education, one of the most noble and lasting achievements of the Cuban Revolution.