Guyanese students studying in Cuba have been excelling academically but the behaviour of some leaves much to be desired, says a Cuban education official.
And Minister of the Public Service, Jennifer Westford informed the students' parents at a meeting yesterday that they would be shocked and ashamed to hear about the amount of rum their children are consuming, adding that they have already had reasons to recall a student who became pregnant. While under the programme the Cuban government would allow the pregnant student to return home and after giving birth return to complete her studies, Westford declared that the Guyana government would not tolerate it.
"We are not sending students to Cuba to get pregnant. If we had wanted to do so then we would have found another place to send them", the minister, herself a Cuban-trained doctor, said
On a visit to Cuba in 2001, President Bharrat Jagdeo had secured a commitment from the government there for 350 scholarships. Around 230 scholarships have so far been granted.
Meanwhile, Head of the Foreign Students Division in the Cuban Ministry of Higher Education, Francisco Martinez, who was the main speaker at a meeting with the parents which was held at the Umana Yana, said pregnancy and abortion among foreign students on scholarship in the country is alarming. Martinez told the parents that prior to 2003, the average number of pregnancies per year was six, but last year there were 24 cases and for the first semester of this year already 28 persons have become pregnant.
According to the Cuban officer, while some students have been keeping their babies, others have been terminating theirs at great risk to their lives. He said two persons have since died as a result of abortions.
"Our policy is that you can have all the sex you want, but students have to take prevention from getting pregnant."
Additionally, Westford criticised parents who she said despite her ministry's warning have been sending large sums of money to their children. According to the minister, before the students departed she had warned parents not to lavish them with too much money as they did not need it. She said the government usually provided a monthly stipend of Cdn$50 to the students which she said was adequate. "When your children have excess money they would do other things other than study. And our government is not sending big shots to study. Our policy is to help those who cannot afford."
Relating a recent incident, Westford said she received an email from a parent who informed her that her daughter had threatened to commit suicide. Westford said she undertook an investigation into the incident and found out that the child's father had sent some money through her mother to her but the mother did not deliver it to the child. As a result the child wrote to her mother threatening that she would end her life if she did not receive the money.
"And it is for those reasons and more that we warned against parents sending too much money for their children but they are not listening," Westford said.
Martinez, who is on a two-day visit to Guyana, alluded to Westford's comments, noting that the students need to be more professional and pay greater attention to their studies. According to him, the Cuban government is awarding the scholarships at a great cost, noting that their economy has been struggling under United States pressure. Martinez said students had to appreciate that they were only selected because it was felt that they would not have the opportunity to benefit from higher studies otherwise and as such they had to value it.
He admitted that conditions at the universities are not the best, but they have been improving yearly. He said their policy is to accord foreign students the best facilities, as those in Cuba could easily return to their parents' home on a weekly basis.
Touching on food, Martinez said some of the Guyanese students have been complaining about the Cuban dishes, but asserted that ever since Cuba initiated the scholarship programme no one has died because of starvation. He said students had to concentrate on their studies and stop worrying about their traditional foods. He made this statement in answering a question posed by a parent who wanted to know how he could send cassava bread and other traditional Amerindian dishes to his son.
The Cuban officer lauded the selection process of scholarship awardees as very transparent in Guyana.
He said prospective students must be told of the conditions in Cuba before selected and they must also be sure about their career choices. Martinez mentioned that a lot of Guyanese and other foreign students would usually request a change in their programme after the first and second years. He observed that the reasons behind this are that some of the students would apply for a particular programme to gain selection, but after the first year they would then realise that they could not cope.
Meanwhile, Westford mentioned that some of the students have been lying to their parents about living conditions, food and other things. The Minister asserted that there are a lot of rum drinkers among the students. She advised the parents to use the same money they would send for their children to bring them back home during the holidays and to counsel them. She said an arrangement had been worked out with BWIA for students to fly to and from Cuba at a reduced cost.
One parent complained that his son recently wrote that he was diagnosed with leptospirosis, a disease that is caused when water is contaminated with rat urine. The parent asked Martinez if the universities were properly sanitised. Westford, in answering the question, admitted that she was aware of the problem, but cautioned the parents that there are several other students living at the dormitory who have not been affected by the disease. Martinez and Webster advised the parent to question his son as to where else he would eat and hang out. Martinez added that the particular student is studying veterinary medicine and such it is possible that he might have contracted the disease while on a field visit. Martinez also assured that there was not a hygiene problem at the dormitory.