HAVANA, April 23 (Xinhua) -- A special education school for children and teenagers was inaugurated Tuesday in the eastern city of Santiago de Cuba, the second of its kind in Cuba.
With an investment of 5.7 million U.S. dollars, the school will provide basic, middle and high-school education for children and teenagers with physical and motor disabilities.
The school, named "Cuba-Vietnam Friendship," has the capacity to assist about 120 children from the country's five eastern provinces. It now has 78 students and 131 faculty members.
"We return to Santiago de Cuba today, to fulfill the dream and promise of inaugurating a new school for very special children, whose extraordinary talents inspire us," Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel tweeted minutes before the opening ceremony.
Minister of Education Ena Elsa Velazquez said the institution will provide students with a high-quality education and guarantee their social welfare in the future.
"Despite constant aggressions from the United States, our country continues to care for the most needed and this school is an example of the government's social policies," said Velazquez.
The minister said the opening of this school, along with a similar one in Havana and a upcoming one in the central province of Villa Clara, brings opportunities for disable children to obtain free and special education.
She added that the proposal of building special education schools was first raised by revolution leader Fidel Castro.
The first special education school was inaugurated in 1989 in Havana.
Cuba has a broad special education program all over the country that provides individual assistance and education for 40,000 students with various conditions like autism, down syndrome, neurological disorders.
