The country has made a great effort to provide essential resources to guarantee a successful opening of the academic year. “Given the economic situation we face,” Education Minister Ena Elsa Velázquez Cobiella stated during a press conference, “we have insisted on savings, careful use of resources, and extending the useful life of everything we have in our schools, as tasks of the highest priority.”
“We must try to repair everything that is broken. This will allow us, as the Ministry of Education, to save the country money and contribute to the economy,” she said.
Other issues, addressed in the conversation with the press, included the recent salary increase for teachers and professors, and planned improvements in attention provided staff.
“The most important impact of the salary increase will be a turnaround in the quality of work done in our educational institutions, beginning September 2, greater commitment to preparation, more consistent, systematic, and rigorous work in the comprehensive education of our children, adolescents, and youth.
“We have insisted in the provinces that regardless of the salary increase, attention and incentives for teachers must be maintained and perfected,” the Minister added.
She noted that the first stage of uniform sales began as planned in all provinces, and that the second is in progress in all but five, adding, “The total production requested, more than 3.5 million pieces of clothing, is ready and distributed to warehouses.”
(Granma)
At another point, Dr. Velázquez spoke of the responsibility the Ministry has in promoting knowledge and respect for the new Constitution of the Republic and recently approves laws on national symbols and elections.
August 14-22, Ministry of Education leaders toured all the country’s provinces and the Isle of Youth special municipality, visiting educational institutions, as projected during visits conducted by President Díaz-Canel on previous occasions.
Regarding what was seen in different parts of the country, the Minister stated: “There is a good work environment, a commitment from teachers that the 2019-2020 academic year will be better, one of transformation in the quality of our national educational system.”
THE 2019–2020 ACADEMIC YEAR IN FIGURES
More than 1,700,000 students enrolled
More than 65,000 students in boarding schools
More than 761,000 students provided partial boarding
More than 10,700 educational institutions
Staffing is projected to be 95% complete
Some 5,813 new teachers, graduates with Bachelor and Associate degrees programs
3,810 students in the final year of their pedagogical university programs will be working full-time in schools.
29 pedagogical schools with some 28,000 students enrolled
1,412 facilities scheduled for maintenance and repair
82.8% of computer equipment available in good repair
More than 155,000 classroom teachers.