The pedagogical school of a new type

Gone is the Institute of Secondary Education of Puerto Príncipe, of 1864. As a result of the urgency and educational needs of the Cuban Revolution, the brand new “José Martí” Higher Pedagogical Institute of Camagüey city was born in a new time.

Thousands of teachers and professors left their classrooms happy to serve the territory of Camagüey and make the thousands of students who would fill the city and rural schools better educated in thought, science, letters and other useful subjects.

Armed with primers and books, the teachers went out to temper the spirit of children and young people, children of workers and farmers; and to make them read the pages of life. To make them fall in love with the truth of science, which clears the mind of ignorance and makes the man intelligent and more useful to his country.

The modern, all-white building of the new Pedagogical Institute appeared on the almost flat profile of the city and very close to that of the first university built by the Revolution, which was named after the eponymous hero of Camagüey “Ignacio Agramonte Loynaz”.

The two trainers of highly qualified professionals, both made up of prestigious professors and academics, both engaged in forging comprehensive men and women committed to the new Homeland, both to provide solidarity and assistance to brother nations.

The first graduations of Education professionals came out of the Camagüey pedagogical establishment -but not before each one had immersed themselves in learning conscientiously and sleeplessness and preparing for the rigor of the exams.

The “Pedagogical School”, just like that, fondly mentioned by his students from the first decades of creation, was a model and a cultural and educational event. Certainly, the environment of self-improvement that pervaded everyone caused an explosive enrollment of teachers and professors to be attracted, demanding greater improvement of the teaching profession.

The experience was enriching. The tree bore fruit quickly. The students had in front of each classroom better teachers. The level of knowledge acquired was accompanied by a broad formation of values. The quality of the human spirit has had tangible results in the years since the Revolution. Even those who left the country are proud to have graduated from the prestigious pedagogical establishment.

The “Ernesto Che Guevara” Pedagogical Contingent made up of hundreds of youngsters from Camagüey led and cared for by their tutors, which left for the sister People’s Republic of Angola -when the rifles of war had not yet been extinguished in some regions of the vast Angolan territory, in 1978 – ratified the altruism of the Cuban revolutionary educational work and the deep solidarity sensitivity of the Camagüeyan teachers. Always ready to fulfill any mission and task that needed to be carried out in the archipelago and outside of Cuba. “Che Guevara” complied, as did the island’s soldiers who came out to fight against apartheid with honor.

It was an inheritance received from the revolutionary priest Félix Varela Morales, from the teacher José de la Luz y Caballero, from the Cuban Apostle José Martí and from the Historical Leader of the Revolution Fidel Castro Ruz. They were the forerunners of that urgent replacement that the world needs, not impossible to achieve, to create the New Man. And on this path of such a long historical duration, full of all kinds of threats and social recurves, the Greater Antilles leads the way, igniting souls and awakening centuries.

Those lessons of such a worthy history have to be present and future in the transmission of knowledge. And that each of the students who learn from their teachers and professors experience that same passion and will to stand one day in front of a classroom, and be able to transmit the truth of human teaching. The work of life will have been accomplished well.

Translated by: Aileen Álvarez García