Note: This is a translation of a document presented to Pastor Ramón Rigal by education officials in Cuba. Read the original, attached below.

Notice to parents about children who have dropped out of school and on the rejection of the educational work that is inherent to the national system of education.

The Municipal Director of Education of Guantanamo, through agreement 382 on the date of the 22nd of March 2015.

I should like to let you know that even and when we have made different visits to your home on behalf of the Municipal Office of Education, with the school, the mass organizations (CDR and FMC), you have not incorporated your child in classes, arguing that they will receive education in an independent manner, imparted by yourselves, and it is our obligation to let you know the following:

The Constitution of the Republic of Cuba, on the date of the 24th of February 1976, reformed in 1992, Chapter V Education and Culture provides in its article 39 point b) that teaching is a function of the state and is free of charge. It is based on the conclusions and contributions of science and on the closest relationship between study and life, work, and production. The State maintains an extensive system of scholarships for students, and provides the workers with multiple facilities for study, so that they may reach the highest possible levels of knowledge and skills. The law establishes the integration and structure of the national system of education, as well as the extent of the obligatory nature of education and defines the general basic education that, as a minimum, every citizen must acquire;

Law 62 of the Penal Code, approved in the National Assembly of the People’s Power, in their session on the 29th of December 1987, of the aforementioned session period, in its second section Other Acts Opposed to the Ordinary Development of the Minor establishes in article 315.3 Whoever induces minor to abandon his home, be absent from school, reject the educational work inherent to the national education system or not fulfill his duties related to the respect and love of the Nation shall be subject to a punishment of deprivation of freedom for a period of three months to one year, a fine of one hundred to three hundred quotas, or both.

We communicate the above because it is our obligation to make available to the responsible parties their infringement, as parents.

Jose Enrique Pons Arias
Director