INAFOCAM Benefitted 16,791 Teachers in 2011-2012

INAFOCAM Benefitted 16,791 Teachers in 2011-2012
Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, 8/23/2012

TheNational Institutefor the Formation and Training of Teachers (INAFOCAM in Spanish) benefitted 16,791 teachers and school coordinators as well as teaching assistants and docents in the country’s 18 Regional School Districts from March 2011 to June 2012.

As part of the continued training programs offered by INAFOCAM, 8,117 teachers, coordinators and teachers’ aides benefitted from scholarships enabling them to seek degrees, courses and workshops as well as short-term courses and special training sessions.

Likewise in 2011,it approved 6,774 scholarship applications and 10,017 in 2012. The Teaching Skills Program also benefitted 654 non-teaching career specialists with teaching vocation scholarships during this period.

As a decentralized organ of the Ministry of Education (MINERD in Spanish), the main function of INAFOCAM is to coordinate programs that offer formation, training, updating of skills and the perfecting of teaching personnel.

Initial Training

Between March2011 and June 2012, 3,525 graduates continued their initial docent training to earn degrees in Early Childhood Education, Elementary Education, Middle School Education, Physical Education, Mathematics and Physics, Biology and Chemistry, Modern Languages, English and Social Sciences.

At the 2011 and 2012 International Book Fair, INAFOCAM undertook a campaign to promote the teaching profession. The campaign, directed at students in their fourth year of high school, sought to motivate students to seek degrees in education as a career choice.

Training continues

As part of the continued training programs offered by INAFOCAM, 8,117 teachers, coordinators and teachers’ aides benefitted from scholarships enabling them to seek degrees, courses and workshops as well as short-term courses and special training sessions.

In the case of degrees, the areas directly impacted have been Natural Sciences, Math, Comprehensive Art Education and Training, Humanities and Religion as well as the sub-system of Adult and Young Adult Education.

They have also earmarked resources for overlapping degrees such as Training in Ethics and Citizenship, Community Participation, Environmental Education, Drug Prevention, Gender and Manhood as well as courses in Spanish Language, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, English, Research-Action, Using ITCs in Education and Accompaniment.

There are still 511 interns on a post-graduate level with Masters degrees in the Science of Education, Curriculum, Applied Linguistics and the Teaching of the Spanish Language, Natural Sciences, Management of Schools and Academic Management, Mathematics, among other disciplines including Doctorates in Education and Mathematics.

New programs

In August, INAFOCAM will begin Teaching Certification programs, Special Education training and Natural Science which will benefit 140 diploma holders.

Another 793 diploma scholarship candidates have the necessary requisites to seek certification in Early Childhood Education as well as Math, Natural Sciences, Spanish Language, Social Sciences and Modern Languages (English and French). In addition, 250 working teachers without university degrees will sign up to complete their education and earn a degree.

Likewise, 600 professionals will be trained as non-pedagogical career teachers, of which 228 are already pre-selected.

Another 2,320 scholarships are expected to be handed out for programs in Mathematics, Natural Sciences, Art Education, Spanish Language, Geography, Methodology and linguistic skills in English, ITCs in Education, Environmental Education, Drug Prevention as well as Comprehensive, Human and Religious Training.

Seven post-graduate programs will get underway for those who will have access to some 320 scholarships from the different Regional Education Offices.

Starting in 2012, INAFOCAM’s website has been up and running (www.inafocam.edu.do) with information on requirements and how to apply for scholarships as well as other academic offers.

Standards

INAFOCAM, in this current project with the Ministry of Education, has tried to respond to the standards, which are defined as follows: quality, institutional strengthening and social dialogue.

In terms of quality, INAFOCAM has undertaken a revision and optimization of the criteria for the selection of training programs and their follow-up and evaluation beginning with the needs on each level, modality and sub-system.

In terms of institutional strengthening, INAFOCAM has worked on updating and distributing information on the procedure of applying for and handing out scholarships.

The organization has been involved in social dialogue through the establishment of the National Teacher Training Roundtable [Mesa Nacional de Formacióndocente] and has also added specialized training institutions.