Havana, Cuba.- President Miguel Diaz-Canel today led the central event in this capital for the beginning of the 2018-2019 school year, in which more than 10,000 educational centers open for more than two millions students across the island.

The president attended a ceremony held at the Rafael Maria de Mendive elementary school, where Cuban National Hero Jose Marti studied when he was a child. The building on the downtown boulevard known as Paseo del Prado o Paseo de Marti was fully reconstructed as part of Old Havana refurbishing project. A classroom in the top floor was freshened up as it was in the 18th century.

Education Minister Ena Elsa Velazquez, Havana Historian Eusebio Leal, Vietnamese ambassador to the island, Nguyen Trung Thanh, and other guests participated in the event at the facility named after Mendive.

Those attending the ceremony praised the Office of Havana Historian for remodeling former San Pablo college, which retains its colonial structure and some of the furniture of the 19th century used by Mendive.