Schools reopen across Cuba as fuel, water and power shortages persist

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LAS MINAS, Cuba (AP) — The Barroso family rose at dawn and hitched a cart to a borrowed horse to take one of their daughters to school on Tuesday, the first day of classes for many students across Cuba.

As the crises deepen on the island, thieves recently stole the family’s horse and killed it for food, so the Barrosos now rely on a borrowed animal for transportation, because school buses aren't running.

Fuel, teachers and uniforms remain scarce as the new school year begins.

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.

The island’s education minister acknowledged ongoing challenges, calling the reopening of schools a “heroic act” for an island whose free and universal education system was long considered a crowning achievement of the 1959 revolution.

But the island’s multiple crises forced the government to end the previous school year in June — one month early. Conditions have only worsened as the island’s power, water and fuel shortages persist amid an ongoing U.S. oil embargo and longtime sanctions.

“This academic year has been the most disastrous one,” said Leanete Barroso, mother of two daughters.

A widespread lack of professors prompted the government to send more than 3,000 teachers from Cuba’s eastern provinces to schools in Havana as teacher coverage fell to 73% across the island. The vacancies are blamed on low salaries and emigration.

Education Minister Naima Trujillo Barreto implored Cubans to help fill the gaps, calling on university students, professionals and even retirees.

“Everyone is invited — anyone who has something to contribute,” she said at a recent news conference. “You 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.”

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.

School uniforms also were largely unavailable as the new school year began, meeting only 12% of demand at the primary level.

“No workshop can operate without electricity. Without fuel, we cannot transport fabric from one part of the country to another,” Trujillo Barreto said. “Without money or the ability to import, no fabric comes in either.”

She said that students would be allowed to wear “comfortable clothing” but are still required to tie on their traditional red and blue kerchiefs.

The day before classes started, Yurima Izaguirre struggled to pull up last year’s 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.

“You’re going to suffocate after a while in the classroom,” Izaguirre said.

No new uniforms were available for her two daughters, but she was able to find two shorts for her son.

A surge in the cost of goods in Cuba meant Izaguirre didn't 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.

Izaguirre worries the most about having to feed her children lunch every day during the school week, another first for parents.

Izaguirre planned to prepare what she and her husband, who works as a lifeguard, could afford: pasta, tuna and mayonnaise: “It has to last.”

Before classes started, Izaguirre told her children that they needed to pack their small, rechargeable fans — each labeled with their name — so they won't swelter inside the classroom, with temperatures hovering above 90 F (32 C). Like many Cubans, they're often hit with daily outages lasting more than 20 hours — so they recharge the fans at the home of a kind neighbor.

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.

Her children give her emotional strength, but daily life in Cuba has hit Izaguirre hard: “In my head, I think of doing 1,000 things, but I have to keep going for their sake.”