Havana, January 31 (RHC)-- The 20th Pedagogical Congress 2017 opened last night at Havana's Karl Marx Theater.  Cuba's Minister of Education, Ena Elsa Velazquez, gave the opening speech, saying that over the past 58 years of the Cuban Revolution, "education has worked and is working hard" to respond to the needs of the Cuban people.

On hand at the inauguration of the Congress was the First Vice President of the Councils of State and Ministers of Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez.

The minister of education, in her keynote address entitled "Pedagogical Congress: Source of Thought, Unity and Hope," stressed that Fidel Castro was the "master of our revolutionary pedagogy, who from his defense speech "History Will Absolve Me," was the promoter of the Literacy Campaign to teach people to read and write.

Ena Elsa Velazquez also pointed to the participation of educators from around the world in this year’s Congress, and summarized the main results of this event — since the first edition in 1986 — among which she highlighted the emergence of the Association of Educators of Latin America and the Caribbean, the Latin American and Caribbean Pedagogical Institute, among other organizations.

The cultural political gala, which took place Monday evening at the Karl Marx Theater, was dedicated to the figure of the historical leader of the Cuban Revolution, Commander in Chief Fidel Castro.