Cuba Detains Eight from Massive Fraud
with pre-university exams
HAVANA TIMES — Eight people were arrested in Cuba in connection with a massive fraud that recently forced a repeat of a pre-university examination in Havana, reported dpa news.
Five of those arrested are senior high school teachers and among the other three is also a worker from a state printer.
All are accused of stealing and selling through an underground network the answers to math tests in early May in Havana. The discovery of the theft forced the cancellation and reprogramming of the exam in the capital.
“The test answers were unscrupulously marketed by the five teachers involved, some of whom sold them and others were devoted to reviewing the subject contents of the tests privately and charging for this service,” said the official “Granma” daily.
It’s not the first time on the island such fraud is recorded. In June 2013 the authorities also annulled the results of a pre-university examination in Havana due to a similar theft.
Fraud of this type is attributed in part to the low salaries of the state sector in the island, where the average wage is around US $20 a month. Many public goods or services are often marketed illegally on the black market.
The remarkable dedication of school teachers in Cuba is to be admired. even those with a Masters degree receive only about $380 per annum including bonuses. It is surprising that more do not succumb to the temptation to increase their meagre incomes. A man buying and selling an average of 26 200 gm loaves of bread per day for a mark up of 1 peso each (buy for 5, sell for 6) earns as much as a school teacher. Although much is written about the Cuban education system, it is fair to ask why are the youth educated? What are the rewards, where is the motivation when the standard of living is penury and there is no opportunity to improve the conditions for the next generation.