The official newspaper Granma published this Tuesday a report on the first month of the 2026-2027 school year in Cuba, which, despite its triumphant framing, reveals an educational system operating in a state of perpetual emergency: blackouts, transportation shortages, uniforms that haven't arrived, and thousands of classrooms without a permanent teacher.
The Minister of Education, Naima Trujillo Barreto, acknowledged before the official body of the Communist Party that the conditions in September "are far from being usual" and that each region had to find its own solutions to maintain school activities.
"It has been, more or less, what we expected, although it is very difficult to predict reality under the conditions we are in," admitted the official, a phrase that unintentionally sums up the state of the Cuban educational system with precision.
The teacher shortage is the most serious and longstanding issue. As the school year began, national teacher coverage was around 73%, with nearly 24,000 positions unfilled, according to official data. Over 380,000 students started the year without an assigned lead teacher.
The most affected provinces were Camagüey, with nearly 3,000 missing teachers to cater to over 95,000 students in 690 schools, followed by Holguín, Matanzas, and Sancti Spíritus, each with more than 2,000 vacancies.
To "fill the gap," the Ministry of Education turned to university students, re-engaged retirees, and professionals from other sectors. Regarding the latter, the minister acknowledged that they require support to adapt to changes in teaching methods: "We have to assist them all," she stated.
The structural cause of this exodus is well-known: the salaries of Cuban teachers, set by Resolution 18/2026 between 6,130 and 7,735 Cuban pesos per month, equate to less than 12 dollars at the informal exchange rate at the end of September.
Blackouts worsened everything else. On the first day of classes, the National Electric Union predicted a deficit of up to 2,310 MW during peak hours, with outages affecting 70% of the country. An emblematic case: the Máximo Gómez primary school in Matanzas had gone more than 23 days without electricity as of October 5, according to the newspaper Girón. The installation of a replacement transformer did not resolve the issue because it had a lower capacity and caused overloads.
Transportation affected attendance, especially in rural and mountainous areas. In response, the MINED implemented an "intensive concentrated start" from September 1 to October 3 to standardize content and relaxed schedules by allowing double sessions in some centers.
This measure, presented by the authorities as a pedagogical solution, was described differently by a teacher of English at the Ramón López Peña basic secondary school in San Cristóbal, Artemisa: “A way to cover up that the school is falling apart,” she pointed out, noting that the new schedule arrived without additional teachers, food, transportation, or electricity.
The list of shortages includes the lack of uniforms: only about 20% of the national enrollment received new school attire at the beginning of the school year. The minister attributed the problem to the energy limitations that affected industrial production.
The immediate background worsens the situation. The 2025-2026 school year was closed early due to the energy crisis: special education closed in May, and general education closed between June 15 and June 30, before the scheduled end of the academic year.
The Minister of Education noted that in some areas, attendance exceeded initial forecasts, while in others, authorities continue to work with families to address absenteeism. October, according to Trujillo Barreto, should solidify what was learned in September, a promise that the Cuban education system itself has been unable to fulfill for years.
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