Cuba began the new school year this week in general education in the 2022-2023 stage, with the objective of sustaining its traditional quality in instruction and concluding the reorganization of on-site classes, interrupted during the COVID-19 pandemic.

by Roberto Morejón

Cuba began the new school year this week in general education in the 2022-2023 stage, with the objective of sustaining its traditional quality in instruction and concluding the reorganization of on-site classes, interrupted during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The previous academic year, corresponding to 2021-2022, had started in March, an unusual date due to the SARS-Cov-2 health situation, and recently came to an end.

Now the new school year began with an enrollment of more than 1,700,000 students in more than 10,900 institutions, a group of them in complex material conditions, although repairs are being promoted.

So far, the Ministry of Education has renovated more than 1,000 schools and is working on 551, including in Pinar del Río, the Cuban province hardest hit by Hurricane Ian.

There are also difficulties in supplying uniforms to some schoolchildren, but the country is resorting to variants that even appeal to the sports industry for the manufacture of uniforms.

Likewise, the Ministry of Education, together with other institutions and the communities, takes care of young people who are not studying or working, despite having educational opportunities.

The Minister of Education, Ena Elsa Velázquez, highlighted the high responsibility of educators in the prevention and confrontation of indiscipline and illegalities.

With this aim and the supervision of the skills of more than 250 thousand teachers and professors, the 2022-2023 school year is underway, without renouncing to the third improvement of the National Education System and attentive to the difficulties of the present.

School directors and teachers must apply changes in schedules due to the deficit of electricity generation in the country, as a consequence, among other reasons, of the impact of the U.S. blockade.

Due to the siege from the North, the Ministry of Education is suffering setbacks, as it is impossible to import all the supplies required to support the teaching of knowledge in the classrooms.  

But these and other setbacks are being dealt with, since the priority is to ensure that the quality of education is not affected.

It is up to students, educators, managers and families to take care of the schools and the material basis of study delivered.

Education in Cuba continues to be guided by Martí's principles and the optimal preparation of children, adolescents and young people so that in addition to advancing in the different cycles, they can be good men and women, useful to the family and society.