Matanzas - The member of the PCC Central Committee Political Bureau and First Vice President of the Councils of State and Ministers, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, valued the efforts made to meet the need for teachers in this province, but stressed that a more effective strategy is required to ensure full teaching coverage.

He noted that immediate measures need to be identified to provide teacher substitutes given the shortage.

In an exchange with sector managers and after a brief analysis on the progress of the school year, he warned that the shortage of teachers weakens the commitment to continue to improve the Cuban education system in line with present challenges, and the aim of making the school the most important institution in each community.

As Raúl Hernández Galarraga, provincial director of Education, explained, alternative plans are being implemented in order to cover the 1,000 vacant teaching posts, with a contingent of teachers from other parts of the country and the interior of the province, as well as the contributions of more than 200 students from the University of Matanzas.

Díaz-Canel was informed of the priorities, progress and challenges in this regard at the University of Medical Sciences and the University of Matanzas, centers which have seen a significant increase in their enrolment rates and a process of constant improvement.

The First Vice President insisted that the training of students must be comprehensive, in order to produce quality professionals and revolutionaries, capable of strengthening the country’s social project and provided with the ideological tools to face the challenges imposed by imperialist forces and the mass media.

He later repeated these ideas at a meeting with journalists from the newspaper Girón, at which time he reflected on the scope of the editorial policy of this media outlet and the resourcefulness of a mostly young work collective, ready to counter the fierce onslaught of cultural colonialism.

Díaz-Canel evaluated the weekly publication’s agenda and suggested to reporters and managers that they constantly check which issues on the public agenda are not being reported.

Accompanied by Teresa Rojas Monzón, first secretary of the Party in Matanzas, and Tania León Silveira, president of the Provincial Assembly of People’s Power, Díaz-Canel also visited the José White Concert Hall and noted the progress of investments on the Guanima Bridge, the Sauto Theater, and the residence to accommodate teachers from other areas working in the provincial capital.