A young Cuban identified as Dailyn Vega posted a video on Facebook that summarizes in less than a minute the disappointment she feels towards the Cuban educational system and the future that awaits her as an 11th-grade student.
"Today I came to school because I had to raise some very low physics grades, and I can't express the level of disappointment I feel with everything that's happening in the schools of this country," says the young woman at the beginning of the video, recorded on the day she went to her school to recover low grades.
Dailyn describes arriving with dark circles under her eyes from not being able to sleep well, pressured by the test she had to face, and lists the obstacles that make studying in Cuba nearly impossible today: chronic blackouts and the collapse of public transportation.
"Youth has no future. One is just spending years of their life, their youth, their time, for nothing, because nothing makes any sense," he asserts with a frankness that resonated widely among Cubans.
The young woman also points out the elimination of university entrance exams as another blow to the value of effort: "They're removing the entrance exams. There's no way to go to school with all this transport issue, this electricity issue."
The Ministry of Higher Education exceptionally suspended the entrance exams to the university for the 2026-2027 academic year due to the energy crisis, replacing them with the cumulative academic index from pre-university education, although the ministry itself acknowledged that the exams remain "the best way" to organize access to higher education.
Shortly before, the Ministry of Education announced the early end of the 2025-2026 school year to the period from June 15 to June 30 —previously scheduled for July— due to a complete lack of fuel, power outages, and the collapse of transportation.
Between 10,000 and 22,000 students were in exceptional circumstances during the course due to living far from their centers or being disconnected from their institutions.
The dilemma that Dailyn faces when looking towards his immediate future encapsulates a structural contradiction of the system: "I am an 11th-grade student, and now that I've reached 12th grade, what career will I choose? I choose a career, I've spent years of my life, and then what?"
The answer she gives herself is revealing: "I don't do anything. I choose to work on something personal because it's not worth working for the State just to starve."
This perception is supported by concrete data. Medical and nursing staff in the Cuban private sector can earn between 20,000 and 30,000 pesos per month, compared to 5,000 or 7,500 in the state sector.
For many young Cubans, the alternative is emigration.
The profile of the Cuban exodus is predominantly young, with a majority belonging to the age group of 20 to 40 years, and 59% of the men and 45% of the women living outside of Cuba emigrated to improve their economic situation.
"In the end, I find myself thinking that none of this is worth it," Dailyn concludes in the video, a statement that encapsulates the mood of a generation caught between a crumbling system and a horizon that seems to be closing in.
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