Not Sending Kids to Cuba’s Schools: A Silent Public Protest

‘It’s terrible what we go through for children to learn something and meet what school demands,’ says a Cuban mother.

By Yoan Miguel González Piedra (Diario de Cuba)

HAVANA TIMES – One of the multiple aspects of the crisis that Cuba is suffering, sometimes overlooked among so many, is the impact it has on school attendance. There is much talk of consequences like the stampede of workers from the state to the private sector, of migration, of the hardships spawned by inflation, the problems with the distribution of milk and bread… but not the collateral effect of people who no longer send their children to school. This is, in addition to a consequence, a subtle form of citizen protest.

“If the bread doesn’t arrive the day before, I don’t send my child to school. If I don’t have money to buy him even a powdered drink, I don’t send him either,” says Yamilé, a mother and Holguin resident.

“And if they cut the power before I can make breakfast, forget about it. Imagine: it’s rare if some of these things, or all of them, don’t happen two or three times a week. So, he doesn’t go much. And I dare them to tell me something, because I’m so mad that if they pricked me instead of blood they’d find venom. There is no one who can put up with this. We’ve reached the limit,” she vents.

Indira, another mother with school-age children, says that it’s “terrible what families must go through for kids to learn something and to meet the demands of school.” 

“They ask for everything, because they don’t even have light bulbs. And you also have to pack a snack for them. Before I used to give him the bread that I get through the ration book, but that doesn’t even come anymore. On the street it costs 40 pesos. My husband earns 200 pesos a day, and that’s not even enough to have breakfast. If I don’t have anything to give it to him, I don’t send him. No way.”

“There are children who have fainted in classrooms because they don’t have any milk, or bread, and what they drink is a little glass of watered-down soda. They can’t function on just that, and the hunger weakens them. And what appears is very expensive. Before, the area to line up in the morning was full. Now they muster barely enough to fill two classrooms,” says Indira.

We parents get upset with so many problems, and end up keeping our children at home, not only because we don’t have what is needed, but because in the end we give them something, whether it’s some sugar water, or a banana, or a sweet potato, but we do it to show that everything is all wrong. But, in the end it’s the child and his education that suffer. Nothing works, and we know that they’re learning little. Nothing works in this country,” she adds.

Yessica is an assistant principal at an elementary school. She told DIARIO DE CUBA, “with the issue of attendance, the situation is critical.  There is, indeed, a lot of truancy, and there are instructions from above (ministerial level) for us to push for double sessions. In practice, however, we don’t have the nerve to confront parents and demand anything from them, because we know what is happening to families, because it’s the same thing that’s happening to us.”

“There are days when 65% of the students are missing. This happens when the bread doesn’t arrive. And, when the milk doesn’t arrive lots of pre-school, first grade and second grade students don’t show up. Likewise, when it rains, few come, something that didn’t happen before. It’s like the families are hardened, overwhelmed, and nothing matters. The power outages are a big problem; with these blackouts we barely reach 50% attendance, and teaching in the dark, in poorly lit classrooms, is terrible. That affects the children.”

“Before, 5% were missing and that was considered disastrous. There was an analysis with the teacher, with the parents, and it was considered a big problem. Now it’s normal for classrooms to be half empty. The truth is that we always report a few more than those who actually come, so the city doesn’t question us, because we’re the ones left holding the bag, with it affecting our professional evaluation. But, how can we demand that parents send their children when we know they don’t even have bread for breakfast?”

There are numerous ways to perceive the profound crisis – material, systemic, of values, and in general —that Cuba is suffering under the ongoing socialist state system imposed by the Communist Party—. There are many sides to the disaster. There are also many ways in which the people manifest their discontent, protest, and express their weariness with the situation. And this sad fact, which affects the education of those who are the future of the country, its children, is, unfortunately, one of them.

Read more from Cuba here on Havana Times.