“Schools in the Countryside” Suspended Because of Dengue Fever / CID

Santa Clara, Cuba November 13, 2013. Officers of the Ministry of Education (MINED),   Central Region, at a government meeting on Monday the 11th, suspended the Schools in the Countryside program for November and December, because of the complicated epidemiological situation in the province.

Guilfredo Martin Betancourt, a MINED official, said the province is experiencing cases of cholera and dengue fever, without giving specifics with regards to numbers, given the environmental and social indiscipline problems.

Captain Robert Rodriguez said, during a meeting with families of the students at the school, that since the beginning of the summer rains and despite the efforts of workers in the provincial health system, foci of the vector (mosquitoes) have accumulated in the capital city and other municipalities.

Yudmila de la Caridad Vázquez, a teacher of the institution, told this publication that the curriculum of the Cuban school is planned such that students from eighth grade upward, spend 30 days of work in the fields, thereby strengthening the Marti principle of Work Study, but that this time the suspension is the right thing to do, because they can not endanger the health of students.

15 November 2013