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Volume No. 1 Issue No. 41 - Sunday April 20, 2003 |
Education Minister Attempts to Secure the Release of Students Jailed in Cuba Editorial Viewpoint
Dominicans were stunned when news originated from Cuba that three students studying in the island were imprisoned for the cultivation of marijuana and attempting to smuggle Cubans into the United States.
Last week, education minister Roosevelt Skerrit announced that he would head a three man delegation to Cuba to attempt to secure the release of the three students. He also indicated that closer screening of students going to Cuba would be undertaken. Currently, well over three hundred Dominican students are in Cuba pursuing studies in fields as diverse as medicine and sports training. About eighty are expected to graduate this year, twenty as medical doctors.
Since the late seventies, hundreds of Dominicans have successfully completed studies in Cuba. The vast majority has returned to Dominica and today forms the core of the medical services on island, while several have opened engineering and architectural firms among others.
This latest episode has been embarrassing to say the least for Dominica, and follows a general and marked breakdown of discipline in schools throughout the island. Over the past year, high school students have been implicated in murder, including the stoning to death of a man in Roseau and gang related activities.
The students arrested in Cuba are languishing in jail and no trial date has been set. The minister expressed confidence in securing the release of the three, and appealed for the students to keep their focus on attaining higher education.
Most of the Dominican students in Dominica have received partial scholarships from the Cuban government, with the government of Dominica providing a stipend. However, last year the Pierre Charles government announced that it was no longer in a position to meet the stipend for the students. Some in Dominica have blamed the withdrawing of this critical support for forcing the students to seek alternative means of supporting themselves while in Cuba. Others believe that this is just the result of the eroding levels of discipline at the schools in Dominica.
For many of the students, the majority of which comes from low income families, study in Cuba provides their only hope of attaining a university education. Tuition at the University of the West Indies is well beyond the reach of the average Dominican, and many have difficulty in securing the required funds to pursue studies elsewhere in the world.
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