Havana, January 27 (PL-RHC)-- Training teachers, education levels in Cuba, its characteristics and prospects, and sciences applied to education, are the main focus of discussions during the International Congress "Pedagogia 2015" on Tuesday.

More than 2,700 delegates are attending this bi-annual Congress at Havana's International Convention Center.

This meeting is an invitation to think about the problems and challenges, the times we are living, Cuban Education Minister Ena Elsa Velazquez said during the opening of "Pedagogia 2015" on Monday.

The minister delivered a lecture entitled "Education: Challenges and Political Commitment," stating that humanity is living through turbulent times in which hunger and violence linger on, and over one million children die every year from preventable diseases.

“There are people of goodwill, such as teachers who are carriers of progressive ideas and make education an instrument of emancipation, whose voices are heard in forums such as this taking place in Havana, in which participants reflect, sow ideas and develop consciousness,” Velazquez underlined. Cuba proposed with political will to give priority to the essence of social development, so the country has made significant progress in the fulfillment of the Millennium Development Goals, and the goals of education for everyone, the minister said.

That work has been done despite more than 50 years of an economic, financial and commercial blockade imposed by the United States on Cuba, which continues despite international rejection.