Bueno, en manos buenas

Rosa María Payá, who actually experienced the Cuban education as a child, disagrees with the IMF;

The structure of the Cuban education system that was created before 1958, and in many senses is the same nowadays, is very good. This is probably the main reason why the education system maintains a certain level of quality, despite the rampant deterioration of the economy and society. Another important factor has been the people: Cuba’s professional teachers, for many years, were well prepared for their vocation; they endured the abuses and exploitation of the government and remained teaching.

That is to say, Castro inherited a very good system (by Latin American standards) from the Batista regime it overthrew in 1959. Not too surprising, in that Cuba was the richest country in the Caribbean, and one of the richest in all of Spanish speaking America, back then.

Today the situation is different. The application of disastrous government policies has been the genesis of many social and economic shortcomings. Low wages, a lack of incentives, and poor working conditions for teachers have added to the extreme politicization of the content and caused the exodus of these professionals to other fields for many years.

I.e., now it's an indoctrination, not education, system.

About 10 years ago, in the absence of professional teachers, the government began to train teenagers and young people for only six months, and these emerging teachers were sent to teach in all primary and secondary schools in the country. As the emerging teachers were not trained to teach classes, they relied on television and other videos.

 Hmmm. That's not confined to Cuba.

The results have been terrible. Education that had already deteriorated practically collapsed. I’m not talking about just academics, but moral and social concerns. Stories of sexual harassment and violence between emerging teachers and students began circulating by word of mouth.

School attendance is compulsory in Cuba, and with the regime’s totalitarian apparatus and full control over the population, it is very easy to make everyone comply.

Education at the point of a gun.