Participants in Consultative Meetings in Santiago, La Vega, San Francisco and Mao Welcome the Education Pact Promoted by the Government

Participants in Consultative Meetings in Santiago, La Vega, San Francisco and Mao Welcome the Education Pact Promoted by the Government
Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, 10/06/20133

On Saturday, more than 3,000 representatives of the civil society, students, teachers, businessmen, and the church participated in the regional consultative meeting on the National Pact for Education Reform that is being promoted by the Government for the regions of Santiago, La Vega, San Francisco de Macorís, Mao, and Montecristi.

The consultative meeting is part of the program of activities taking place in different parts of the country in the framework of the National Pact for Education Reform for a Quality Education for All, which is being implemented by the government.

In La Vega, the consultative meeting was held at the Augustinian College with representatives of the community, social and business organizations, as well as with the civil society, associations of parents and friends of the schools, teachers, students, and education authorities of the provinces of La Vega and Sánchez Ramírez.

At the meeting that took place in Mao, which was held at the Sacred Heart School, 828 people participated enthusiastically and actively, and had the opportunity to raise their concerns and present their proposals on the improvements that they considered should be included in a new Dominican education system.

The consultative meeting is part of the program of activities taking place in different parts of the country in the framework of the National Pact for Education Reform for a Quality Education for All, which is being implemented by the government.

Since the early morning hours, members of the civil, education, trade unions, religious, and business communities attended the meeting that was convened by the Ministry of Education (MINERD) and the Economic and Social Council (CES), and which, apart from the Cibao region, also included Santiago, La Vega, and San Francisco de Macorís.

The consultative meeting began with a ceremony headed by the Deputy Minister of Education, Mr. Luis de León, with the participation of the Governors of Valverde and Santiago Rodríguez, Domingo Colón and Miguel Ángel Núñez, respectively; the Director of the Regional Office 09 of Mao, Milagros Almonte; the CES representative, Reverend Fidel Lorenzo; and Magdalena Lizardo, member of the Technical Team of the Pact for Education and the Ministry of Economy, Planning and Development, who made a presentation on the methodology.

280 youth, 262 teachers, 200 organizations, and 86 parents, participated in the meeting in Mao. They reflected on the issues related to pre-university education, higher education and technical-professional education.

Consultative Meeting in Mao

Delegates from the various sectors of the Valverde and Montecristi provinces participated enthusiastically. They responded to the call issued by the government and the Economic and Social Council (CES), as part of the continuation of the program of activities scheduled to gain feedback from the stakeholders who are involved in education, agencies, local groups and independent persons, on the government proposal that serves as the basis for the pact that is to be signed by all sectors aiming to build a better education.

Speaking at the opening ceremony of the event, which took place in the halls of the Church of the Augustinian College, the Deputy Minister of Planning at the Ministry of Education, Engineer Víctor Sánchez, on behalf of the Minister of Education, Mr. Carlos Amarante Baret, said that these spaces for discussion and analysis bring a renewed sense of faith and hope to the participants for a better future.

He said that whenever Dominican society and the education community are called, they respond. Thus, teachers, students, parents, companies and civil society responded to the national call for the consolidation of an education pact.

Sánchez stressed that the objective of the consultative meeting was to encourage the transparent and inclusive participation of the various sectors of the Dominican society, in order to gather their suggestions on how we can improve education in the Dominican Republic.

“The results gathered at these regional consultative meetings are then taken into account along with the contributions made ??by citizens through the website. This consultation process will end on October 15, then, the next stage of this process begins, as established in Decree 228-13, which is the creation of working groups with experts and organizations that have been invited to discuss and reflect on the contributions received from everyone,” he said.

Consultative Meetings in Santiago and San Francisco de Macorís

During the consultative meetings conducted in these communities, in which thousands of people participated, there was concern among the participants regarding the enforcement of the agreements of the National Pact for Education.

Some three thousand people, including students, parents, teachers and civil society representatives, gathered in schools located in Santiago and in San Francisco de Macorís. These regional consultative meetings took place ??simultaneously to the ones in Mao and La Vega.

The debate, almost unanimously, revolved around the need for better training for the teachers, for more materials and laboratories for the schools, and also for the families to strengthen sound values.

College students, meanwhile, demanded that universities develop stronger ties with businesses to ensure employment for the future professionals.

The organizers of the simultaneous consultative meetings, Juan Ariel Jiménez, Economist and member of the Technical Support Team of the Consultative Meetings for Educational Reform, and the Minister without Portfolio, Antonio Isa Conde, were surprised by the level of participation and enthusiasm of the various sectors and they assured that the government of President Danilo Medina will comply with what has been agreed to guarantee a better education.