A total of 414 educational institutions will open their doors on 1 September in Ciego de Ávila for the start of the new school year, despite the economic and energy crisis the country is going through, exacerbated by the blockade that the United States has maintained against the island for more than half a century.

Doctor of Pedagogical Sciences Enrique Calderón Piñeiro, general director of Education in the province, explained that there is a teaching coverage of 77.6 per cent, which will be supplemented with alternatives such as overtime and the contracting of technicians from other bodies.

Calderón Piñeiro insisted that the academic period will develop according to the possibilities of each municipality, with double sessions in those centres where food provision is guaranteed.

For his part, Yurisbel Gallardo Ballat, rector of the Máximo Gómez Báez University of Ciego de Ávila, informed that second- and third-year Higher Education students will have a blended learning regime: two days of face-to-face classes per week at the Manuel Ascunce Domenech campus.

In each school, directors, teachers, support staff and families were in charge of cleaning classrooms and outdoor areas, aware that it will be a much more complex stage due to the critical energy and economic context of the country.

This has forced the devising of various alternatives to operate in these circumstances and fulfil the mission of training and educating the «new pines.»