Miguel Díaz-Canel celebrated university graduations taking place in Cuba this Tuesday on his X account, labeling them as "great news" even as the Cuban educational system faces one of its worst crises in decades.
"A great piece of news is flooding the networks: despite the energy blockade, punishments, and threats, our universities are celebrating their graduations for the Centenary of Fidel with the beauty and emotions of always. Congratulations graduates, the Homeland counts on you to break the siege," wrote the leader.
He accompanied his message with images of ceremonies at various universities across the country, where students joyfully displayed their graduation certificates.
What the tweet omits is the real context in which this 2025-2026 course took place: a year marked by blackouts of up to 50 consecutive hours, massive suspensions of classes, and emergency decisions that reveal the collapse of the sector.
The government had to cancel the entrance exams for university for the 2026-2027 academic year, announced on May 20, replacing them with the accumulated academic average from pre-university due to the inability to ensure minimum conditions for the tests.
Shortly after, the authorities advanced the end of the school year to the period from June 15 to June 30, also due to the energy crisis and fuel shortages.
The University of Holguín completely suspended classes from February 6 until March 2026. The University of Oriente held its provincial graduation on June 15 and 16, but could not transport students from Granma, Holguín, and Guantánamo to the central campus due to a lack of fuel, delivering their diplomas in their respective territories.
On March 5, classes were suspended at all levels in Havana, including preschools, following a massive blackout caused by a failure at the Antonio Guiteras power plant.
This situation is compounded by a deficit of 24,000 teachers —12.5% of the vacant positions— with salaries ranging from eight to twenty dollars monthly at the informal exchange rate.
The reaction of Cubans to Díaz-Canel's tweet was mostly critical. "Do you know how many graduates are surviving on the streets? Doing anything that brings them more money than their profession. Our professionals are frustrated, unless they are in leadership positions," replied a user.
Other comments pointed in the same direction: "And then they have no job, what irony."
Another person emphasized the brain drain that the country has been experiencing for decades: "More than half of those graduates will leave Cuba."
The reality behind Díaz-Canel's words has concrete numbers: Cuba lost more than 30,000 doctors between 2021 and 2024, and it is estimated that 545,000 Cubans emigrated just in 2025, predominantly aged between 20 and 40 years, precisely a part of the generation that is now receiving diplomas.
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