Miguel Díaz-Canel celebrated the start of the 2026-2027 school year on Tuesday as a "conquest of the Revolution" and a "victory" for the Cuban people, but his Facebook post sparked a wave of criticism, mockery, and outrage from citizens who described a reality that was radically different from the one depicted by the leader.
In his message on social media, the ruler stated that "social protection is to uphold, amidst the energy blockade, the achievements of the Cuban Revolution" and that "more than one and a half million students" were starting the new school year "which the empire attempted to obstruct with its suffocation plan."
Hours earlier, at the National Central Act held at the Paseo del Prado in Old Havana, he declared: "As long as there are classrooms with students and schools with teachers in Cuba, there is a nation, there is the Homeland, there is the Revolution, and there is Socialism."
The reality that the regime does not show
The citizen response in the comments was overwhelming. While a minority replied with pro-government hashtags, the majority of the reactions pointed to specific shortcomings in the country.
“What achievements?”, asked a user. Another commented: “For social protection yours, as you don’t suffer even an hour of power outage.”
One of the most extensive comments described the first day of the school year as "bittersweet" and listed the reality faced by families: children going to classes without having been able to sleep due to power outages, spending eight hours at school without cold water or snacks, and parents leaving home without electricity and returning to the same situation.
"More than 24 hours without power for just two with electricity," he reported. "Mr. President, sometimes it's not the blockade; it's the unscrupulousness of a few who profit from something as complicated as electricity."
Another comment directly questioned the concept that Díaz-Canel invoked: “Social protection means guaranteeing those thousands of young people access to quality education and healthcare, new notebooks and books, teachers with knowledge and experience, electricity inside and outside their homes. In a word: it is Prosperity. Neither you nor the Single Party to which you are subordinated understand the meaning of that word, and what is more serious, you do not care.”
Other notes were more concise yet equally impactful: "At my son's school, there is no lunch," "the teachers are asking for 1,000 pesos to buy paint and fans"; "In my town, most children did not go to secondary school or pre-university due to a lack of fuel," and "the government's cynicism is at an all-time high."
A crisis that the data confirms
The 2026-2027 school year began with a deficit of 24,000 teachers, which is equivalent to 12.5% of the required positions, and a national teacher coverage of 73%. In Camagüey, the shortage was around 3,000 teachers for over 95,000 students across 690 schools.
According to data from the World Food Programme, 48.5% of Cuban children aged six to eleven do not receive meals or snacks at school. The production of uniforms barely covered 20% of the enrollment: 2.2 million garments out of the 3.6 million needed.
The Minister of Education herself, Naima Ariatne Trujillo Barreto, acknowledged that the school year was starting under "very difficult" conditions.
A commentator summarized it with skepticism: "In a month or less, they'll surely suspend it, just like the thermoelectric plants that they fix today and break down again tomorrow."
Díaz-Canel, for his part, stated from the Paseo del Prado that "each classroom will become a workshop of solutions" and that the course, although challenging, "will be a dignified course."
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