2The Island of International Education

"In June 1977, during a visit to Angola, Army General Raúl Castro conveyed -- on behalf of our Commander-in-Chief Fidel Castro -- Cuba’s offer to Angolan President Neto to provide four schools on the Isle of Youth, each with 600 students, where nearly 2,500 Angolan children could complete their primary education, attend secondary school, and subsequently enter the country’s technological centers, cadet schools, or continue their pre-university studies to ultimately access university degrees.

Immediately, within a few days, our Mozambican friends learned of this offer, and it was Samora Machel himself, the beloved president who was recently murdered by the South African racists, who asked Fidel that Mozambique also have the opportunity to send their children to this Island. The positive Cuban response was followed by swift action on the part of Mozambique, and within a few weeks the contingent of Mozambican students had arrived."^[9]

Source: Dirección Municipal de Educación. Isla de la Juventud. 2004.