During the annual review of the Ministry of Education (MINED), held this week in Havana, Miguel Díaz-Canel once again resorted to empty rhetoric that is disconnected from the national reality.
In his address, broadcasted by the National Television News (NTV), the ruling doctor proposed as the focus of his actions towards educators to provide greater “spiritual, emotional, and material attention”, in a statement that borders on the surreal in light of the alarming deterioration of the Cuban educational system.
While thousands of teachers leave the classrooms driven by mass migration, low salaries, and a lack of minimum conditions to teach, the regime's leader offers "spirituality" as a palliative instead of structural solutions.
The statement, lacking practical content, was met with skepticism and annoyance by a large part of Cuban society, which sees how the official propaganda attempts to gloss over with sugary speeches the ruin of the education sector.
Education in crisis: Insufficient salaries, teacher exodus, and declining quality of education
Cuba is experiencing one of the deepest crises in its educational system since 1959. The shortage of teachers is a widespread phenomenon across the country, exacerbated by the massive migration of professionals, low incomes, lack of educational materials, and the overload of political-ideological tasks.
Numerous complaints reflect the state's inability to guarantee a quality education.
Educators, poorly paid and without real incentives, face precarious living conditions. Many have opted for informal jobs, emigrated, or simply left the profession. In schools, it is common for a single teacher to handle multiple grades, improvise content, and make up for the lack of institutional resources through individual effort.
Despite this, during the ministerial review, "achievements" and "strategies" were highlighted that do not represent a structural improvement of the system, nor do they alleviate the widespread collapse of an education system that, along with Public Health (now in ruins), was presented for decades as one of the pillars of the so-called “revolution”.
In addition to the above, the "continuity" led by Díaz-Canel has maintained the investment pattern of recent decades, carried out by the Cuban state, which has prioritized the tourism sector with gross disproportion over public services such as health or education.
The propagandistic use of "spirituality"
Díaz-Canel's reference to "spiritual attention" is not an isolated occurrence. Since his arrival in the presidency in 2018, the leader of the so-called "continuity" has consistently incorporated the concept of "spirituality" into his narrative, in an attempt to reconnect with a population weary of the regime's propaganda and exhausted by the systemic crisis facing the nation.
In December 2023, for example, the leader appealed to the "spiritual forces" to "save the revolution", a speech that reveals how far the ruling elite has replaced real solutions with symbolic formulas that border on the esoteric.
In September 2022, he insisted on “working on the spirituality of the people” to maintain social cohesion. A year earlier, he even stated that the Communist Party seeks “prosperity and spiritual wealth”, in open contradiction to the material, cultural, and ethical impoverishment of the country under his leadership.
These statements, however, lose all legitimacy when set against the facts. The Cuban regime, directly responsible for the spiritual and cultural decline of the nation, has censored artists, repressed intellectuals, imprisoned young people for thinking differently, and penalized academic, press, and expression freedoms.
How can a State that punishes political dissent, incarcerates journalists, and persecutes independent educators claim to be a defender of spirituality? What sense does it make to talk about “spirituality” when cultural spaces are shut down, professors are expelled for not aligning ideologically, and education is turned into a tool for indoctrination?
More than a value, spirituality in Díaz-Canel's words has become an empty term, a discursive tool devoid of content, repeated ad nauseam in speeches that ignore the true needs of the Cuban people.
Continuity of authoritarianism in sentimental guise
The regime's use of "spirituality" is also a strategy to cleanse the image of authoritarianism, endowing it with an apparent humanist sensitivity that does not align with reality.
This type of discourse seeks to camouflage repression with sweetened messages, presenting leaders as “concerned” about the emotional well-being of the people, while the mechanisms of social control remain intact.
In April 2018, shortly after assuming the presidency, Díaz-Canel visited recreational centers at night in Sancti Spíritus to "see how the youth were having fun," and expressed his satisfaction with the work of local authorities "for the spiritual enjoyment of the people",
That same year, Yusam Palacios, a propagandistic figure of the regime, went so far as to describe Raúl Castro as "the spiritual guide of Cuba", a term that caused shock even within circles sympathetic to the system, due to the almost mystical nature with which an official responsible for decades of repression was being sanctified.
In 2020, the Deputy Minister of Culture Fernando Rojas stated that Cubans "owe their spiritual development to the revolution", disregarding the fact that it was precisely the "revolution" that stifled spaces for free thought, censored independent philosophical movements, and impoverished the artistic landscape with its totalitarian vision of culture.
Díaz-Canel's words about "spiritual support" for teachers are merely another expression of the divorce between the official narrative and the reality of the country.
Instead of tangible solutions to save the education system, the regime offers abstractions, while the exodus of teachers, the precariousness of schools, and professional disillusionment continue to undermine one of the most sensitive sectors of Cuban society.
Cuba does not need more rhetoric about "spirituality." It needs fair wages, academic freedom, real investment in educational infrastructure, and, above all, a break from the political model that has destroyed the foundations of a cultured, dignified, and free nation.
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