Cuba: Congress for Peace, Education for All

Cuba: Congress for Peace, Education for All Havana, Jan 29. – A call to preserve world peace and achieve access to education for all closed the 2011 International Pedagogy Congress, which brought together about 3,300 delegates from 38 countries.

Not only speakers but also the final declaration of the event, which began on Monday, urged participants to march together for preserving peace in times of threats to peaceful coexistence all over the globe.

Cuban Vice President Jose Ramon Fernandez highlighted the close relationship between teachers and the people, and the importance of demands to eliminate illiteracy, which he said was indispensable for the development of the individual and society.

The final declaration stated that educational achievements are part of the willingness by governments to guarantee the right to access, and called for efforts to ensure that children enroll in school and finish.

The document also defended Latin American unity and the struggle against the White House hostility toward Cuba, and demanded the release of the five Cuban antiterrorist fighters unjustly imprisoned in the United States for over 12 years.

The president of the Association of Latin American and Caribbean Teachers (AELAC), Dominican Belgica Ramirez, also spoke out for the release of Gerardo Hernandez, Ramon Labañino, Antonio Guerrero, Fernando Gonzalez, and Rene Gonzalez.

Ramirez sent an engraved commemorative plaque on the occasion of the her groupâ�Ös 20 anniversary to the leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro, because he was the inspiration for the international pedagogy congress, first held in 1986.

Eva Escalona, president of the meetingâ�Ös scientific committee, said the 13th congress would take place Feb. 4-8, 2013.

Education ministers from Angola, Dominica, Guatemala, Guinea Bissau and the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, as well as Cuban Education Minister Ana Elsa Velazquez, Higher Education Minister Miguel Diaz-Canel, and Culture Minister Abel Prieto, among others, attended the closing ceremony.(Prensa Latina)