The work of those professionals devoted to the noble task of educating and teaching and those who, at a very young age, contributed to that feat, is being celebrated.

On Wednesday, Ministry of Higher Education officials were granted the Jose Tey medal for their contribution to the education of new generations of professionals and a career devoted to that discipline.

The medal acknowledges the work and merits of teachers from any educational level, with 25 years or more working in this sector, and rewards workers of political, social, and mass institutions and organizations, and prominent Cuban and foreign people who work for the construction of socialism.

On December 22, 1961, the leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro, declared that Cuba was free of illiteracy after a battle for knowledge that involved some 271,000 volunteer teachers from all over the country and placed the nation among those with the lowest illiteracy rate in the world.

The campaign taught over 700,000 people to read and write and paved the way for the creation of a universal and free educational system at all levels, which is a priority for the Cuban State.

“We have won a great battle,” Fidel Castro said then, “and we have to call it this way, battle, because victory over illiteracy in our country was won through a great battle with all the rules of a major battle.”

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