A video posted on TikTok showcases the deplorable condition of the furniture in a Cuban school and has prompted a wave of reactions that blend dark humor and pain among users of the platform.
The images, shared by the account @cuba.9998, show a table with a removable surface in a classroom, a detail that was enough to spark comments that encapsulate the feelings of many Cubans regarding the collapse of the education system.
"Table with a removable surface, Cuba has advanced a lot; in my time, they didn't move," was one of the comments that resonated the most, ironically reflecting the precarious situation faced by students and teachers in the country's classrooms.
The deterioration of school furniture is not an isolated case. In recent months, increasingly serious situations have been documented: two children were injured after a ceiling panel fell in a school, an incident that highlighted the real danger to which children are exposed within the educational institutions themselves.
The situation is not restricted to a specific area. It has been documented that a school in Matanzas is in ruins, while the Escuela Mixta Victoria de Girón in Nuevitas, Camagüey has also been captured in a state of total abandonment, images that circulated widely on social media.
The infrastructure crisis is compounded by the energy collapse. Recently, classes were suspended in Havana due to an electrical failure, a measure that has been frequently repeated and systematically disrupts the school calendar.
Despite this outlook, the Cuban government ordered the continuation of school in a hybrid format, a decision that has drawn criticism from parents and educators who point out the inability to ensure minimum conditions for safety and learning.
Discontent has also been voiced from within the university classrooms: a group of thirty young people held a sit-in at the University of Havana to denounce the hunger and hardships they are experiencing, in an unusual protest within the Cuban context.
In light of the accumulation of shortages, teachers, principals, and families have sought creative alternatives to maintain the school year, improvising solutions that fail to conceal the depth of a crisis that impacts an entire generation of Cuban students.
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