The coverage of teaching positions was at 84.4% in 2024, which represents approximately 26,871 vacant positions throughout the country.
14ymedio, Havana, 2 April 2025 — Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel wants Cuban teachers to return to school, to be better trained, to learn languages, and to teach “quality” classes. The problem, the same reason teachers fail to meet any of these expectations, is the lack of incentives and a monthly salary of less than 6,000 pesos, about $15. However, the president offered no assistance to teachers, much less the hope of paying them better salaries.
During a working meeting of the Ministry of Education held this Tuesday in Havana, the president praised “the wisdom of Cuban teachers” and asserted that educational institutions and the government are working to ensure that “they participate more in decision-making, so that they feel heard, recognized, and taken into account.”
The praise, however, could not obscure the critical situation of education on the island. According to data presented during the meeting, at the end of 2024 teaching positions were filled at 84.4%. In percentage terms, the number does not seem serious, but in terms of the number of teachers, some 26,871 positions remain vacant nationwide. In pedagogical institutes and vocational pre-university schools for the exact sciences, occupancy is even lower, at 76% and 79%, respectively.
The praise, however, could not obscure the critical situation of education on the island.
The authorities did note that the state of education is truly precarious, especially in pre-university, junior high, and elementary science schools, although they did not provide specific data. The provinces with the worst teacher coverage rates are Havana, Matanzas, Artemisa, Mayabeque, Sancti Spíritus, Ciego de Ávila, and Holguín.
Education Minister Naima Trujillo Barreto defended certain “discrete advances” in the quality of secondary education and teacher training—some 100,000 teachers took advanced training courses and 5,000 enrolled in English courses. She also said that staff had been rehired, although the method used was to attract retired teachers, not those who had left the classroom to pursue private sector employment.
Thanks to “the measures implemented during 2024,” she said, referring to the salary increases for certain professionals (including teachers) last year, it was also possible to maintain a good portion of the positions that were already filled. Although she acknowledged that “the completion of the workforce and its stability continue to be a concern.”
Regarding plans for 2025, Trujillo asserted that her ministry is focused on “perfecting”—another of the government’s favorite terms—the education system, providing “comprehensive care” to teachers, and ensuring “quality.” Concrete measures to achieve this were overlooked, although she explained that a budget increase is being considered, depending on “the difficult conditions in the country.”
In any case, Díaz-Canel’s request to “improve teacher care, both materially and spiritually” rest on the usual voluntarism.
Prime Minister Manuel Marrero also made a similar statement: “We cannot allow a single child to drop out of school due to financial difficulties or distance from school. This is our responsibility, and local authorities must take responsibility for it,” he emphasized, leaving the responsibility in the hands of the provincial education departments.
“We trust in the creativity and capacity demonstrated by the workers of the Education system to seek new solutions, based on commitment and dedication, to guarantee the training of new generations, which is required for the development of our society,” he concluded.
The concrete measures to achieve this were overlooked, although he explained that a budget increase is being considered.
Identifying students in vulnerable situations, combating drug use in schools, providing care for children without parental support, and promoting the childcare program—”which has had a huge impact on working mothers and fathers”—were other proposals that fell flat.
In the midst of the economic crisis, education has become a secondary issue for the government, which even reduced its investment in the sector by approximately 400 million pesos in 2024 compared to the previous year. Added to the health sector, another supposed “pillar of social justice” of the Revolution—as Díaz-Canel himself defined it at the meeting—investment barely amounts to 3% of the state budget, compared to the 37.4% allocated to the tourism sector.
The lack of state support has resulted in a precarious state of education, which has been constantly interrupted by power outages and crippled by a lack of resources and teachers.
In 2024, the government announced a salary increase for education and public health workers and also improved incentives for seniority and earned degrees. Salaries, which did not increase significantly compared to the real cost of living on the island, were not enough to stem the exodus of professionals to exile or to better-paid sectors, such as the private one.
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