A person is considered “literate” in Cuba if they can sign their name.
During the 60’s & 70’s some of the upper echelon were sent to Moscow for higher education.
These days, those with a high school education don’t have a real hard time emigrating. In Cuba, the higher the degree of education, the harder it generally becomes to legally emigrate. When Cuba relaxed and allowed global travel for it’s physicians, they lost a lot of their brightest talent mainly to Spain, Florida and New York.