Cuba spends nearly 13% of its annual GDP ($9.3 billion) on education, which is a greater amount than any other country in Latin America. The government uses this money to provide free education to all students of all ages. This approach to education has enabled students from around the world to attend medical school free of charge at Cuba’s Latin American School of Medicine (ELAM).
Training approximately 13,000 students each year for 14 years, this program has graduated more than 17,000 foreign students from 70 countries with a medical degree. The majority of these students come from countries in Latin America, the Caribbean and Africa.
“The basic objective [is] having them return to their home countries and work with the most disadvantaged people…Our students often go work in places where local doctors do not want to go, and their scientific and technical level is recognized around the world” explained Heidi Soca, co-director of ELAM.
Most of these students come from low-income families and never would have had the opportunity to study medicine without the free education being offered by Cuba’s ELAM.
According to Merady Gomez, an 18 year-old medical student from Honduras, “Studying medicine was my life’s dream. But for a poor family like mine, that was impossible…Here, I am making my dream come true, and I have high hopes of being able to help my country. This program is a blessing.”
Although all education has traditionally been free in Cuba, recent economic difficulties have made it increasingly difficult for the Cuban government to subsidize all levels of education. To ensure that international students can continue to study medicine free of tuition, Cuba has entered into bilateral agreements with several countries that are willing to assume some of the costs of sending their students to medical school.
The free education provided at ELAM is part of the public healthcare system offered in Cuba. The Cuban government continues to place both education and healthcare among its highest priorities. As a result, Cuba boasts a primary health system that ranks as one of the most effective in the world, offering free and universal healthcare to all. To, each year more than 20,000 people from around the world traveling to Cuba yearly in search of medical treatment. These medical tourists largely come from Europe, Latin America and Canada.
Creative Commons Love: Brian Snelson on Flickr.com
Written by Amanda Lubit