Cuba's second and third largest civilian assistance programs are educational and medical. By 1980 some 3,500 teachers were abroad, the equivalent of 2 percent of the island's stock of teachers. Since the Sandinista victory in Nicaragua, that country has received the largest contingent of teachers. By 1983 some 2,900 Cuban teachers were working in Nicaragua. The island's foreign educational assistance program also involves training students from other countries in Cuba, on the Isle of Pines.
Foreign students can receive training in medicine and engineering as well as other technical fields.
Cuba's medical aid program is also substantial. Cuba's program in Nicaragua involved about 600 health personnel and in Iraq nearly 400. Cuba's overseas economic programs offer specialists in agriculture, sugar cultivation and refining, mining, fishing, transportation, cattle raising, irrigation, economic and physical planning, and management. The island sends specialists abroad to help train local personnel.