Havana, Cuba: Cuba will end the 2019-2020 academic year next December to minimize the epidemiological risk from Covid-19 and facilitate the adaptation conditions of students, official sources confirmed today.
According to the Minister of Higher Education of Cuba, José Ramón Saborido, the current situation of re-outbreak of the disease led to the redesign of the educational strategy that was originally thought.
The undergraduate study exercises will conclude next October, while in November and December students will be able to access their university entrance exams, as well as the granting of careers.
“The commitment of our education system is to ensure four weeks of placement for students before taking the entrance exams?, he stressed.
For this reason, the examinations will be carried out in three different calls, which will begin in the territories with a less complex epidemiological scenario.
In addition, Saborido assured that at the end of September the regular day course reached 80.43 percent of students who defended their thesis.
“‘Universities of the capital, Artemisa and Matanzas have not been able to complete the course due to the difficulty of the epidemiological situation, which does not allow an adequate degree of presence?, the minister said.
Saborido also highlighted the contribution of 13 universities that have become isolation centers against the disease, which prevents the advance of these institutions in the academic year, but is a contribution to the confrontation of the pandemic in the country.
“‘We believe that if the approved methodological work is applied, we can dedicate the remainder of the year to achieve a leveling up among all the universities in the country to start the new course next year?, he emphasized in an appearance before the Roundtable information program.
The minister stressed that the new school year would begin on February 1, 2021 and would extend until mid-December, which translates into a new type of academic calendar for higher education in Cuba.
Regarding the end of the 2019-2020 academic year, the rector of the University of Havana, Miriam Nicado, explained that once this process has concluded, the higher education centers will prepare the next course, within the possibilities of each territory, taking into account the epidemiological situation for that date.
She assured that on October 15 all the students of that University will have documentation with the details of the decisions taken for the conclusion of the course. For his part, Modesto Ricardo Gómez, rector of the Technological University of Havana José Antonio Echeverría (Cujae), reported that the center will conclude this process on October 25, and from the 26 to the 30 of that month they will be sent to the students the corresponding certifications.