The formal kick off to Cuba’s 2006-2007 school year took place Monday at the Astral Theater in Havana, led by the Minister of Education Luis Ignacio Gomez Gutierrez.

A record 388,495 teachers across the different educational levels will provide classes to over 3 million of the country’s 11.2 million inhabitants, a remarkable achievement that includes some 87,000 university professors.

The education minister noted that Cuba is the country with the highest per capita ratio of teachers, double that of many wealthy nations. Gomez added that 90 percent of the children enrolled in primary school are in classrooms of 20 or less students per teacher.

In a country where the school system prioritizes education close to home, 1,117 rural schools have five or less students while 146 have only one student, a fact the Cuban education minister said does not exist anywhere else in the world.

Gomez also noted that the new school year is the fourth under which major changes have taken place in junior high school education. He said multi-discipline teachers, optimum audio-visual aids and specialized computer programs are making the transformations possible.

Some 46,000 children with disabilities will receive classes at Special Education schools, in hospital classrooms or in their homes. The goal is for these kids to receive the highest level of instruction possible according to their abilities, including job training, said Gomez.

Besides the minister of education, the school year inauguration was attended by Esteban Lazo Hernandez, Abel Prieto Jimenez and Pedro Saez Montejo, members of the . Party Political Bureau, as well as Lazara Mercedes Lopez Acea, member of the Central Committee Secretariat and other . Party, government and student leaders.

Source: Granma