Cuban teachers taking bribes

Press, 12 January 1987, Page 30

Cuban teachers taking bribes

NZPA-Reuter Havana Eleven schoolteachers were jailed for terms of six months to four years for falsifying students’ examinations and fraudulently promoting them in exchange for money and other gifts, the newspaper “Trlbuna” reported. The scandal, the first of its kind made public in the Cuban press, comes in the midst of a campaign, initiated by President Fidel Castro earlier this year, to wage a battle against corruption. It also reflects a new policy of the Cuban news media to openly report shortcomings. The teachers, including an assistant principal, from the Antonio Guiteras high school in Havana, allowed students who agreed to pay the bribes to work on examinations outside the school. One teacher was accused of charging students for helping them with preparation for examinations. Students were promoted in exchange for payments, and in several cases

students were given credit for courses they did not take, “Tribuna” said. In exchange for their favours, the teachers received money or gifts of items which are expensive or in short supply in Cuba, such as watches, calculators, perfumes, alcoholic beverages and video cassettes, it said.