CUBA is well known for its love of dance and music. Children and adults here at home are used to seeing and hearing salsa music on the television and online, but it is still a welcome surprise when you visit Havana to see and hear a live band in most bars and hotels.

On Sundays, the sound systems are out on the streets and people are dancing together, changing partners with each song, young and old together, and the streets are alive with joy, music and movement.

The Cuban education system clearly promotes music and dance at all levels and age groups. Music education is embedded in the general curriculum for all and further activities can be accessed in the “interest clubs” at school. Interest clubs take place in the afternoons in every school, and children can attend a wide variety of extracurricular activities, provided by staff, parents and the community.

These include music, sport, computing, arts and so on. School starts early and finishes with a late lunch, but most children are at school until about 4.30pm.

During the annual NEU delegation to Cuba in October 2018 we visited eight schools in five days. In every school a welcoming party of students, including children as young as four and five sang, danced, spoke or recited to us.