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The summer of 2026 arrived in Cuba without electricity, without accessible recreational options, and with a school year that ended prematurely.
According to a study by IPS Cuba, thousands of children are at home expressing the same complaint: "Mom, I'm bored."
Estela Reyes, a 28-year-old Havana waitress, hears that phrase all the time since her eight-year-old son began his vacation in mid-June.
"It doesn't work for me that they have moved the end of the school year earlier. He is only eight years old, and sometimes I don't have anyone to leave him with while I work. I also don't want to let him go out with the neighborhood friends while I'm not nearby," she declared to IPS.
The 2025-2026 school year ended between June 15 and June 30, when Resolution 43/2025 from the Ministry of Education stated that it should end in July.
The minister Naima Ariatne Trujillo announced it on July 1 on social media, although she had already hinted at it on May 16 on television, .
The school year was, in the words of Havana photographer Jennifer Suárez, "a bit eventful": at the end of 2025, an epidemic of chikungunya affected children and teachers; in February 2026, power outages and teacher absences due to transportation issues became more pronounced.
Reyes experienced it firsthand: "The teachers came to class tired or would be absent because of the blackouts at night. My child also came home completely exhausted. I'm sure he wasn't performing at his best."
The minister herself acknowledged the impact of the crisis on the classroom: "After a night without power, getting the boy to school, engaging him in class, is a challenge."
"And the teachers, who suffer just the same, without electricity or with the problem of whether I have water or not in the house, focusing on teaching the students has been quite a challenge."
The regime identified between 10,000 and 22,000 students in exceptional conditions, more disconnected from their institutions or located in more remote areas.
Furthermore, parents had to print school books at private businesses at prices that far exceed the average purchasing power, as more than three million texts have ceased production due to a lack of supplies for the publishing industry.
The holidays offer no relief. The state recreational facilities are in ruins, and where the private sector has filled the gap, prices are unaffordable.
A family would need 4,000 pesos to enter Jalisko Park in Vedado, which is more than half the average monthly salary of 6,830 pesos —equivalent to about 12 dollars—.
A water park in Ciego de Ávila charged 500 pesos for just 30 minutes of children's swimming.
On its part, the Los Caballitos amusement park in Artemisa has reopened under private management with rates ranging from 100 to 500 pesos per ride on each attraction.
The monthly basic basket exceeds 96,000 pesos, about 14 times the average salary, which makes any recreational outing an exceptional luxury for the vast majority of families.
Angela Hernández, a 74-year-old retired woman from Havana who cares for her granddaughter while her parents work, summarizes her feelings with weariness: “I love spending time with my granddaughter and helping the family in any way I can, but sometimes I feel too old to keep up this pace, with so many blackouts and so many problems.”
At the university level, the situation is no better. Leonardo Gómez, a Law student at the University of Havana and vice president of the University Student Federation of his faculty, was emphatic with IPS: "This course should not have taken place and, in practice, it has not taken place."
The regime canceled the entrance exams for higher education for the upcoming academic year and will replace the admission process with the cumulative academic index from high school.
Anne Lemaistre, Director of the Regional Office of UNESCO in Havana, warned at the end of May that "education in Cuba is at risk due to the current energy crisis" and that the situation "endangers the future of an entire generation, with long-term consequences."
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