The summer of 2026 arrived in Cuba without electricity, without accessible recreational options, and with a school year that ended early.
According to a research by IPS Cuba, thousands of children are at home expressing the same complaint: "Mom, I'm bored."
Estela Reyes, a 28-year-old waitress from Havana, hears that phrase all the time since her eight-year-old son went on vacation in mid-June.
"I am not pleased that they have moved up the end of the school year. 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 to the street with the neighborhood kids while I am not close," she declared to IPS.
The 2025-2026 school year concluded between June 15 and June 30, when Resolution 43/2025 from the Ministry of Education stated that it should take place 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 tumultuous": at the end of 2025, a chikungunya epidemic affected children and teachers; in February 2026, power outages and teacher absences due to transportation issues intensified.
Reyes experienced it firsthand: "The teachers came to class tired or were absent because of the blackouts at night. My son was also very exhausted. I'm sure he wasn't performing as well."
The minister herself acknowledged the impact of the crisis on the classroom: "After a night without electricity, getting the child to go to school, how to engage him in class, is a challenge."
"And the teachers, who also suffer just like that, without electricity or dealing with the issue of whether I have water or not at home, focusing on teaching the kids 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.
Additionally, parents had to print school books in 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. State recreational facilities are in ruins, and where the private sector has filled the gap, the prices are prohibitive.
A family would need 4,000 pesos to enter Jalisko Park in Vedado, more than half of the average monthly salary of 6,830 pesos —equivalent to about 12 dollars—.
A water park in Ciego de Ávila was charging 500 pesos for just 30 minutes of children's bathing.
On its part, the Los Caballitos park in Artemisa has reopened under private management with fees 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, making any recreational outing an exceptional luxury for the vast majority of families.
Angela Hernández, a 74-year-old retired resident of Havana who takes care of her granddaughter while her parents work, summarizes it with weariness: "I love spending time with my granddaughter and helping the family as much as 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 not any better. Leonardo Gómez, a Law student at the University of Havana and vice president of the University Student Federation of his faculty, was blunt with IPS: "This course should not have taken place, and in practice, it has not taken place."
The regime canceled the entrance exams to higher education for the upcoming academic year and will replace access with the cumulative academic index from pre-university education.
Anne Lemaistre, Director of the UNESCO Regional Office 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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