By Ayose Naranjo
HAVANA, Aug 27 (Reuters) - Cuba will kick off the school year next week as planned despite a severe ongoing crisis that has affected transportation and electricity and led to falling teacher numbers and a lack of supplies such as uniforms.
Nearly 1.4 million children and adolescents will head back to school at the start of September, said the island's education minister on Thursday.
"Cuba's educators are aware of the extraordinary impacts of the collective asphyxiation we are suffering ... so this will be a school year whose greatest victory will be that we are able to carry it out at all," said Education Minister Naima Trujillo.
The crisis has worsened since June, when students were released early from school for the summer break as transportation and electricity faltered amid stiffened sanctions by the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump.
Washington has since imposed more sanctions on a wide range of Cuban officials, accusing them of anti-American activities, as it seeks to intensify pressure on Cuba's communist leaders. Havana says the U.S. is trying to damage its economy and prevent it providing basic services.
Cuba has long touted its free and universal state-provided education as one of its greatest achievements. But severe shortages, aggravated by the U.S. sanctions, have led many to question the viability of the model.
Teacher coverage at the island's schools has fallen to 73%, according to official statistics. Many have emigrated or sought better-paying work.
Trujillo said the sector would hire university students, professionals from other sectors and call back retirees, plus offer additional compensation, to keep schools afloat.
Havana province, among the most critical in terms of staffing shortages, will receive about 3,000 teachers from provinces in eastern Cuba where schools are better staffed.
Shortages have also hit the distribution of school uniforms, with official garments available to meet only 12% of the demand for primary school children due to ongoing blackouts at the factories where the uniforms are produced.
The minister urged schools to be flexible and welcome students in "comfortable clothes" and their traditional red neckerchiefs.
(Reporting by Ayose Naranjo, editing by Dave Sherwood and Rosalba O'Brien)
