Children Back to School in Havana, Cuba

Havana will resume the 2019-2020 school year Monday with the return to school of more than 314,000 children, teenagers and young people to conclude the academic year interrupted on March 24 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

This will end a long wait of almost eight months, during which the Cuban capital was more than once the epicenter of the pandemic in the country, which is why it could not be part of that majority group of provinces, which resumed the academic year on September 1 and today will welcome a new school year.

Five weeks are needed to conclude the school year and each level of general education has curricular adaptations.

It is worth repeating: preserving the health of students, educators and other workers and their families is, of all, the first priority, and experience in most of the country shows that it is perfectly possible to “protect” schools, to keep them as safe places, without a single case of COVID-19.

Compulsory use of masks, establishment of footpaths with antibacterial solutions, increased active screening, disinfection of hands and surfaces, prohibition of entry to students and workers with respiratory symptoms and people outside the center, are some of the hygienic-sanitary measures provided and must be complied with rigorously and consistently.

Cuba interrupted classes in March this year and, in view of the improvement in the epidemiological conditions in many of the territories, the school year was resumed last September.

During these months of pandemic, the national television has transmitted the contents for the different levels of general education, there have been provided spaces for parents’ orientation, as well as reviews for the university entrance exams.