The school year begins in Cuba. Since yesterday, parents have been finalizing the details so their children are ready to attend classes. Just yesterday at 8 p.m., I passed by a barbershop and found a considerable line of children waiting their turn to get a haircut.
In other times, I was also one of those last-minute kids, even though my mother would send me to the barbershop two or three days earlier. Other concerns weigh on parents’ minds, such as their children’s snacks and lunch, new shoes and backpacks, as well as the possibility of getting sleep at night due to so many power outages.
These are logical concerns—I would have them too if I were in their place. But I think there’s a much bigger problem for their children: the shortage of teachers. Will my children learn anything? Will their time at school be just a formality?
No one remembers that the previous school year was interrupted many times for reasons that, back when I was a student, would never have been accepted as excuses. It was also cut short at the end; if before it finished close to July or in early July, this last one ended in mid-May for some and early June for others.
Something makes me think that nobody cares about education in Cuba. Only a few of us see the danger of not making the effort to ensure that children read, write, understand, and create—regardless of the circumstances we’re living in right now. There is no justification for wasting time on empty entertainment on the internet.
If my country has any chance of being different from what it is today, it’s only if this generation of children is saved, and if parents, of course, are capable of giving their best so their children secure their learning at school. It doesn’t matter if you don’t have new shoes to start the school year. In the future, they may have four or five pairs, as long as they know what they’re doing—and without needing to steal to get what they want.
English isn't my native language. Text translated with DeepL
