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The fuel shortage that is paralyzing Cuba has forced the Vocational Pre-university Institute of Exact Sciences (Ipvce) Mártires de Humboldt 7, in Bauta, Artemisa province, to announce that the leave for its boarding students will be spaced out to every 21 days, a measure that directly impacts the students' right to return home regularly.
The institution announced the decision on Saturday via its Facebook profile, citing that the available fuel must be allocated to the two daily routes for teachers and the night shift staff, deemed essential for keeping the center open.
Juan Permuy Felipe, director of the Base Business Unit of School Transportation in Artemisa, explained that the measure was adopted following an analysis among the main authorities of the Party and the provincial Government, the General Directorate of Education, and its business unit, based on the available fuel figures and the prioritized services proposed by the Ministry of Transportation and approved by the Ministry of Economy and Planning, explained for its part the official newspaper El artemiseño.
The Provincial Education Directorate of Artemisa highlighted that, despite the crisis, it has managed to ensure the presence of the entire student body and requested the support of families.
"We rely on the support of the family to achieve the greatest possible success together in the students' continuation of studies," he stated.
The measure is not an isolated case. The energy crisis has already eliminated the entrance exams for the Ipvce in Pinar del Río, where they were replaced by a municipal ranking based on academic records.
In Matanzas, the situation affects more than 90,000 students across 504 educational facilities, with changes to the final assessments at all levels.
The education officials in Matanzas specified changes for the end of the school year that also include the elimination of admission exams to the Ipvce in that province.
Mártires de Humboldt 7 had already gradually resumed classes in March, prioritizing the 78 twelfth-grade students with four organized transportation routes from areas such as Bahía Honda and Loma de Cinco Pesos.
The collapse of school transportation is due to the "emergency mode" that the Ministry of Transport declared in February, with drastic cuts to services and priority given to health, ports, and airports. State passenger transportation fell by 93% nationwide.
The crisis worsened following the interruption of Venezuelan oil supplies. Nevertheless, the regime ordered children to return to school despite the collapse of the electrical and transportation systems, while Cuban mothers reported power outages lasting over 15 hours ahead of the twelfth-grade final exams, describing the situation as "stressful and devastating."
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