A Shortage of Teachers Will Mark the Upcoming School Year / 14ymedio

Elementary students (Luz Escobar)
Elementary students (Luz Escobar)

14ymedio, Havana, 25 August 2014 – This Monday enrollment began for the various levels of education across the country. The 2014-2015 school year presents a challenge to the Ministry of Education authorities, given the alarming shortage of teachers in the provinces of Havana and Matanzas. On September 1st more than 1.8 million students will enter the classrooms, a figure that declines every year because of the low birthrate affecting the Cuban population. The coming school year will put to the test an educational system caught between an educational system, the unattractive salaries for professionals, and the verticality of decision making.

So far, the presence of 172,000 teachers in the schools has been confirmed, which meets only 93.1% of the needs. However, at least 10,897 positions have been difficult to fill and the educational authorities have tried to fill them by hiring retired teachers, using school staff members from management and administration, and increasing the workload of the teachers already confirmed. Officials and education experts will also help in the schools, although without the ability to cover all the educational needs.

Still, there is a shortage of at least 660 teachers in the capital and Matanzas province, which so far have no replacements. The Education Minister, Ena Elsa Velazquez, remarked that regardless of the shortage, already confirmed educators have to be protected and “not given extra tasks.” An intention difficult to achieve given the current circumstances.

In recent decades Cuban education has suffered a process of material and professional deterioration. During the previous year there was an increase in people complaining about the loss of spaces in classes and assignments in numerous schools around the country. The exodus of teachers to other types of work has forced the training of “emergent teachers” and the introduction of classes taught by television and videos. These measures demonstrate that education is broken and generate deep concern among the students’ parents, particularly those with children in elementary and junior high school.