I'm not an expert on Cuba, don't profess to be, but I do know that statistical information and facts that abound in libraries and internet, books etc, back up many of the advances that Cuba has made especially in health and education. sammieswife.
Availability of Basic Goods and Services per Capita--Cuba 1958-1978 (1958 = 100)
| Year | Food&Beverage | Clothing | Housing | Education | Health |
| 1958 | 100 | 100 | 100 | 100 | 100 |
| 1962 | 99 | 52 | 107 | 173 | 105 |
| 1968 | 102 | 52 | 107 | 173 | 105 |
| 1972 | 110 | 90 | 103 | 224 | 120 |
| 1974 | 120 | 95 | 103 | 275 | 151 |
| 1976 | 123 | 100 | 103 | 363 | 175 |
| 1978 | 125 | 100 | 104 | 446 | 202 |
from Claes Brundenius, "Growth With Equity: The Cuban Experience (1959-1980)", World Development Vol. 9, No. 11/12(1981) pp. 1083-96
Comments:
1. Decline in clothing figures can be explained by the fact that a lot of raw material for the textile industry was imported from the US and needed to be replaced by local inputs, a structural transformation that was long and difficult.
2. Lack of growth in housing is because priority for the construction industry was given to building infrastructure, schools and industrial plants.
3. Gains in health took place despite the fact that 1 out of 3 doctors left Cuba in the first 3 years of the revolution. The infant mortality rate in Cuba, up until the recent economic crisis, was one of the lowest in the developing world.
4. The illiteracy rate in Cuba went from 23.6 percent to 3.9 percent in less than one year. This was corroborated by UNESCO and described as a feat unequaled in the history of education. In 1979 compulsory schooling embraced 92 percent of all children between 6-16 years old, and more than 1/3 of the total population was attending some form of school.
Private Schools in Cuba were abolished in 1961. Before 1961, roughly 15 percent of grade school students and 30 percent of high school students attended private schools which were primarily white. This had led to a 2 tier system in which under-financed public schools were attended by blacks and poorer whites, while the private schools were confined to the privileged elite. This is the state of affairs, of course, that is emerging in the United States.
After the abolition of private schools, the bulk of Cuban students started attending fully integrated schools where blacks and whites received equal treatment.
The Cuban revolution also attacked racism in housing. It instituted an immediate 50 percent reduction in rent and eventually ownership of the houses was granted to the former tenants. Thus, more blacks as a percentage of the population own their homes in Cuba than in any country in the world according to Lourdes Casal ("The Position of Blacks in Brazilian and Cuba Society", Minority Rights Group Report No. 7, pp. 11-27)