SAN LUIS POTOSÍ, Mexico.- Cuban youth do not escape the critical reality; observers of their surroundings, demotivation grows among them and they aspire to leave Cuba as soon as they have the opportunity, as confirmed by some interviewees. CubaNet.
“The only thing they have in mind is to leave the country. They don’t want to study “because of the same situation of the country’s institutions. There are no teachers, there is no food,” said a Cienfuegos resident about the disengagement of many of his contemporaries from the university.
In the same vein, they referred to the aspects of daily life that make going out to study or work hateful.
“When the power goes out at night, they have to go to school early the next day and that demotivates people. There is no way to, as we Cubans say, ‘cover the sun with a finger’. They see it on television, they see it and they promise this and that,” said another interviewee about one of the causes of the disenchantment of the young.
A nursing student said that not only is this situation exhausting, but also the chaotic school system. In this regard, she shared with CubaNet the schedule that has been imposed on him for his studies: “Monday, practice; Tuesday, one subject; Wednesday, we only have physical education; Thursday, we have classes at 1:15 p.m. and we return home at 2:30.”
With this mess, he said, it is difficult to get motivated and get more involved in the race.
“Cuba has to do something to motivate the kids to keep going. Right now, nobody wants to keep going. Neither the adults nor anyone wants to stay here. They have no motivation,” the Cuban concluded.
No options
Although one Cienfuegos resident argued that the boys “are on the wrong path” and should be on the right track, there are few options.
In this regard, the nursing student herself argued that with the high prices of food, studying becomes a luxury, because not all families can afford for a child to go to university and not work.
“Not all mothers have the same amount of money to give their children the next day for school. If they don’t have breakfast, they have nothing to give them,” she said.
Another young man, a university student, justified that “the youth itself is very manipulated” due to their low cultural level: “It is not just about music. The cultural level is knowledge, general culture. When it comes to expressing themselves, there are young people who walk around the streets in ways that are disrespectful.”
Although he said he would not look for someone to blame, he also said that he does not see professional opportunities for these young people in the current Cuban context, nor prospects beyond studying: “There is no way, students do not want to study. Currently I do not see any improvement.”
Go…
Most agreed that the immediate expectation for young people is to leave the country.
In Cuba the future is null: “You will not prosper here, you will stagnate here.”
The former university student, pessimistic, in front of cameras, expressed that with his degree he could not come close to earning a living wage and a YouTuber would easily surpass him.
“I am a university student. The same YouTuber today makes me twice as much as I will make when I graduate and work at what I am going to work at. I feel like leaving here. With three videos and more than a thousand views, you can buy a better phone than I would buy if I worked here every month,” he said.
Working to survive
This year, Marta Elena Feitó Cabrera, Minister of Labor and Social Security of Cubaacknowledged that many young students in the country are forced to work to survive, and even to leave school for that reason.
The official declared that this situation was a “high priority” for the Government of the Island. He also noted that the authorities seek “the protection of a group of young people who feel the responsibility to join the workforce while studying, to generate greater income for their families in vulnerable conditions.”
School dropouts are a problem in Cuba today, which is added to the demographic crisis that the country is going through. The serious situation is due to variables such as economic difficulties, an aging population, a low birth rate and the migratory exodus, in which hundreds of thousands of young people have left the Island, leaving it without a labor force.
