School in the countryside

A school in the countryside, originally called an "escuela en el campo" in Spanish, and officially titled an "Escuela Secundaria Básica en el Campo", was a type of school in Cuba, created in the 1970s for junior and senior high school students. These institutes were boarding schools in rural areas, where children went to focus on agricultural labor. Students were to spend half their scheduled day studying, and the other half working to grow crops. This education was intended to foster a love of work, collective projects, and a shared understanding between urban and rural Cubans. The schools were intended to be self-sufficient, using the crops grown by students for financial support, but this model often faltered, causing schools in the countryside to necessitate state funding.

The construction of schools in the countryside greatly expanded educational access for rural Cubans, who before the Cuban Revolution often had no access to education. However, during their operation, critics often claimed that the schools in the countryside disrupted parent-child relationships, subjected students to poor living conditions, and enabled ideological indoctrination.

After the Special Period, the schools in the countryside became increasingly difficult to maintain due to national economic shortages. Raul Castro announced in 2009, that the schools were all to be closed. All schools in the countryside were phased out by 2011.