Education in Cuba is in crisis

Education in Cuba is in crisis with the lack of teachers and the constant blackouts that affect both the infrastructure and the rest of the teaching in the country, they told Martí exprofesitors and families with children of school age.

Inelis Delgado, a mother resident in Camagüey, explains that teachers’ shortage has generated overcrowding in classrooms, making the student learning process difficult.

“The more children, the more heat. They are closed classrooms without ventilation, many of them, ”he said.

In addition to the precarious conditions, a thin complaint that subjects such as Geography and History barely receive the necessary attention.

“They show you the ball of the world and countries, and geography is over. The problem is that there are no deepening because there are no teachers, and those who are have no preparation. Here you learn that 2 + 2 is 4 and read in quotes. The other is ‘we will be like Che’, ”added the woman in reference to ideological training within teaching in Cuba.

Delgado also highlights that civic education has practically disappeared from schools.

“Ask permission, please say, thank you, they are things that have been left out. It is a disaster, ”he said.

Cuban society faces today the consequences of an educational system with serious deficiencies. The lack of teachers, the suspension of classes due to the constant cuts of electricity and the superficial education of fundamental subjects have deteriorated the quality of education.

In 2024, the Cuban authorities publicly recognized the crisis of the education sector. To alleviate the lack of teachers, students of pedagogical careers have resorted, they have hired retirees and have overloaded active teachers.

An article by the official newspaper Escambray showed how this situation is directly affecting the performance of the students, reflecting in the low results of the entry tests to higher education.

The activist María Elena Mirro Marrero, a teacher who no longer exercises the profession, describes another problem within the classrooms: the acceleration of academic content due to the reduction of class days.

“Those children who already have less classes, try to teach them in three days a content that should occur in a month. Maybe that child came to school after they took the light at night, did not sleep well, has no water and, when the time comes to learn, he is already exhausted, ”explained the esdocente, resident in Havana.

“What they see in the street is the anger for bread, the anger for chicken. In the queues what is said are barbarities, and that is what they learn. They do not know how to say good morning or good afternoon, «said Mir Marrero, who says that» you «is» a word that is no longer heard in Cuba. «