HAVANA (Reuters) — Cuba is cutting back its hallowed free education system and moving students into more practical careers to reduce costs and fill needs in its work force, recently released government statistics show.

Enrollment in the communist-run country’s many types of schools fell to 2.2 million students last year from 3 million in 2008, a drop of 27 percent, according to the National Statistics Office.

The reductions include cuts in some of the most vaunted programs of the Cuban revolution, which from its beginning in 1959 emphasized the importance of education for all.

Soon after succeeding his brother Fidel in 2008, President Raúl Castro warned of coming budget cuts in education and health care because, he said, the debt-laden country could no longer afford to maintain a bloated state bureaucracy.