Children sent back to their homes due to lack of conditions at the Childcare Center in Camagüey

The Childcare Center «Amiguitos de Martí», located in the Puerto Príncipe neighborhood of Camagüey, sent all its children back home this Tuesday, the first day of the 2026-2027 school year, because the facility did not meet the minimum conditions to begin classes.

According to journalist José L. Tan Estrada via the #TanteandoCuba page on Facebook, families have been instructed to stay at home "until further notice," while the issues at the center are being resolved.

"The course has begun, but for these little ones, there are no classes," wrote Tan Estrada, who described the situation as yet another example of "the precarious conditions under which the school year starts in Camagüey," he emphasized.

The case is not an isolated incident. Camagüey started the new school year with a deficit of nearly 3,000 teachers, which represents a teaching coverage of only 68.7% to serve over 95,000 students in 690 schools.

The provincial director of Education acknowledged that the province needs over 9,500 educators, but currently has only about 6,500 active ones.

For early childhood, it is expected that 62 child care centers and 20 small children's houses will operate in the province, although with serious limitations.

At the beginning of the school year, 52 educational centers lacked certification due to issues with cisterns or water storage, school snacks were only guaranteed for 59 schools, and the production of primary uniforms was progressing at just 12% due to a lack of electricity, fuel, and supplies.

The crisis is not limited to Camagüey. This Tuesday, the Minister of Education, Naima Ariatne Trujillo Barreto, acknowledged that the school year was starting under "very difficult" conditions, with shortages of uniforms, school supplies, teachers, and challenges in maintaining food in the classrooms.

At the national level, the teacher deficit is estimated at 24,000 positions. According to the World Food Program, 48.5% of Cuban children aged six to eleven do not receive food or snacks at school.

There are reports of schools surrounded by garbage, with debris, uncontrolled vegetation, and restrooms in poor condition, while Cuban mothers warned that they would not send their children if basic needs for electricity, drinking water, and food were not guaranteed, amidst power outages that exceed 20 hours a day in some areas.

The deterioration is progressive. In the 2025-2026 school year, Camagüey already began with more than 2,000 missing teachers and a coverage rate of 75.5%; a year later, that gap had widened even further. The case of "Amiguitos de Martí" starkly illustrates what this collapse means for families: children returning home on the first day of school without knowing when they will be able to return.