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The Provincial Education Directorate of Pinar del Río eliminated final exams and assessment exercises for all primary grades for the 2025-2026 school year, justifying the decision as an adaptation "to the realities of each territory" and the need to make better use of available hours.
The announcement was signed by Claribel Rivera Leal, head of the Primary Education Department of the province, and published by the newspaper Guerrillero, an official media outlet from Pinar del Río, without explicitly mentioning prolonged blackouts or the lack of fuel and transportation as direct causes of the changes.
According to the statement, in grades one, two, three, and four, evaluation will be solely based on daily work, through systematic assessments, with no final exam or proving exercise.
In fifth and sixth grades, there will also be no final exam; it will be replaced by practical assignments and partial assessments tailored to each subject.
The final grade will be calculated by averaging the three periods of the course, which the announcement itself describes as "a fair and straightforward calculation."
The official text implicitly acknowledges the precarious conditions by stating that "if one day only one class session can be held, it will be reported transparently in order to seek solutions together."
The euphemistic language of the statement contrasts with the seriousness of the situation faced by schools in Pinar del Río. Just days earlier, the energy crisis erased the entrance exams to the IPVCE Federico Engels in Pinar del Río, which were replaced by a ranking based on academic records.
The provincial director of Education, Evelio Herrera Padrón, characterized the situation as "complex" and acknowledged that the lack of transportation and electricity overwhelms the system.
In the IPVCE Mártires de Humboldt 7, also in Pinar del Río, the government reserves fuel for staff and extends student passes to 21 days, as was reported this Sunday.
The educational crisis is not exclusive to Pinar del Río.
On March 5th, the authorities in Havana suspended classes in all educational centers due to a nationwide blackout, and in March 2025, Cuban children returned to school without bread, hygiene, or electricity, while parents in Matanzas and Santiago de Cuba refused to send them to class.
Nationally, the teacher shortage surpassed 24,000 positions in the 2024-2025 school year and continues into the current year, with thousands of positions unfilled in various provinces.
The start of the 2025-2026 school year was marked by power outages and hardship, with only 2.2 out of 3.6 million uniforms produced.
Rivera Leal concluded his statement with a phrase that summarizes the official narrative regarding the collapse of the system: "Although there may be shortages, what never lacks is the creativity and commitment of the teachers."
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