{"id":6408,"date":"2026-09-01T16:11:20","date_gmt":"2026-09-01T16:11:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=6408"},"modified":"2026-09-01T16:11:20","modified_gmt":"2026-09-01T16:11:20","slug":"cubas-schools-reopen-with-no-fuel-no-uniforms-and-a-27-teacher-shortage-as-1-4-million-students-head-to-the-classroom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=6408","title":{"rendered":"Cuba\u2019s schools reopen with no fuel, no uniforms and a 27% teacher shortage, as 1.4 million students head to the classroom"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>As the crises deepen on\u00a0the island, thieves recently stole the family\u2019s horse and killed it for food, so the Barrosos now rely on a borrowed animal for transportation, because school buses aren\u2019t running.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=6406\">A new bill would tax AI tokens to fund jobs if the technology causes mass unemployment<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Fuel, teachers and uniforms remain scarce as the new school year begins.<\/p>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>More than 10,000 schools are expected to open their doors on Tuesday, welcoming an estimated 1.4 million children and more than 135,000 teachers.<\/p>\n<p>The island\u2019s education minister acknowledged ongoing challenges, calling the reopening of schools a \u201cheroic act\u201d for an island whose free and universal education system was long considered a crowning achievement of the 1959 revolution.<\/p>\n<p>But the island\u2019s multiple crises forced the government to end the previous school year in June \u2014 one month early. Conditions have only worsened as the island\u2019s power, water and fuel shortages persist amid an ongoing U.S. oil embargo and longtime sanctions.<\/p>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u201cThis academic year has been the most disastrous one,\u201d said Leanete Barroso, mother of two daughters.<\/p>\n<h2>Cuban schools lack teachers<\/h2>\n<p>A widespread lack of professors prompted the government to send more than 3,000 teachers from Cuba\u2019s eastern provinces to schools in Havana as teacher coverage fell to 73% across the island. The vacancies are blamed on low salaries and emigration.<\/p>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Education Minister Naima Trujillo Barreto implored Cubans to help fill the gaps, calling on university students, professionals and even retirees.<\/p>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u201cEveryone is invited \u2014 anyone who has something to contribute,\u201d she said at a recent news conference. \u201cYou might be at home, perhaps retired, and eager to meet a group of children who need lessons in the very subject you know better than anyone else.\u201d<\/p>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Meanwhile, parents and those in the private sector are expected to help provide school meals, with some schools only reporting a 15-day supply of food, according to state media.<\/p>\n<p>School uniforms also were largely unavailable as the new school year began, meeting only 12% of demand at the primary level.<\/p>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u201cNo workshop can operate without electricity. Without fuel, we cannot transport fabric from one part of the country to another,\u201d Trujillo Barreto said. \u201cWithout money or the ability to import, no fabric comes in either.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=6404\">Apple\u2019s new CEO John Ternus once told Gen Z to \u2018never assume\u2019 they know as much as others\u2014he says it\u2019s the mindset hack that will push you forward<\/a><\/p>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>She said that students would be allowed to wear \u201ccomfortable clothing\u201d but are still required to tie on their traditional red and blue kerchiefs.<\/p>\n<h2>Cuba\u2019s daily grind takes its toll<\/h2>\n<p>The day before classes started, Yurima Izaguirre struggled to pull up last year\u2019s school uniform on the youngest of her three children. She grimaced when she saw that her 7-year-old daughter had nearly outgrown the burgundy skirt.<\/p>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u201cYou\u2019re going to suffocate after a while in the classroom,\u201d Izaguirre said.<\/p>\n<p>No new uniforms were available for her two daughters, but she was able to find two shorts for her son.<\/p>\n<p>A surge in the cost of goods in Cuba meant Izaguirre didn\u2019t have enough money to buy new shoes for her children. For the first time ever, she had to buy school supplies for the three of them. The government was unable to provide them.<\/p>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Izaguirre worries the most about having to feed her children lunch every day during the school week, another first for parents.<\/p>\n<p>Izaguirre planned to prepare what she and her husband, who works as a lifeguard, could afford: pasta, tuna and mayonnaise: \u201cIt has to last.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Before classes started, Izaguirre told her children that they needed to pack their small, rechargeable fans \u2014 each labeled with their name \u2014 so they won\u2019t swelter inside the classroom, with temperatures hovering above 90 F (32 C). Like many Cubans, they\u2019re often hit with daily outages lasting more than 20 hours \u2014 so they recharge the fans at the home of a kind neighbor.<\/p>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>The longer-than-usual vacation before classes also hit the family hard. Usually, they would visit the beach, a park or the zoo, but with no transportation available given a lack of fuel, Izaguirre said that she would organize picnics beneath a tree near their home.<\/p>\n<p>Her children give her emotional strength, but daily life in Cuba has hit Izaguirre hard: \u201cIn my head, I think of doing 1,000 things, but I have to keep going for their sake.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=6402\">\u2018Pentagon right now is, in some cases, rudderless\u2019: Army Secretary Dan Driscoll steps down after just 18 months<\/a><\/p>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Cuba has filled just 73% of teaching positions as schools reopen amid persistent power, fuel and food shortages.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6407,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6408","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - 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