Minister highlights European cooperation to further adult education

Minister highlights European cooperation to further adult education
República Dominicana, Santo Domingo 10/05/13

The Minister of Education, Mrs. Josefina Pimentel, underscored the support that the Spanish Agency for International Cooperation (AECID – Agencia Española de Cooperación Internacional para el Desarrollo) has provided to the Ministry to further adult education in the country.

The Minister of Education highlighted the contributions of the Spanish cooperation during the signing ceremony of an agreement between the European Union and Spain, for 2.3 million euros, …

As an example she said that, thanks to the aidthat has been received from Spain, a platform for basic education for adults has been installed, and that Spain has also contributed technical assistance to reformulate the education curriculum for young people and adults.

The Minister of Education highlighted the contributions of the Spanish cooperation during the signing ceremony of an agreement between the European Union and Spain, for 2.3 million euros, to provide technical support to the Ministry of Education (MINERD) during the period 2013 – 2016.

The agreement was signed by the Ambassadorof the European Union, Irene Horejs, and the Ambassador of Spain in the Dominican Republic, Jaime de Lacadena.

Minister Pimentel said that, since 2006, MINERD has received from AECID technical assistance for strengthening the areas of strategic and operational planning of the Ministry, which has been essential to provide the necessary tools to develop the current Operational Plan.

“It has also had an impacton the annual operational planning of the schools in the Educational Districts and Regional Offices, which represents a qualitative change in the Ministry’s planning with respect to a decade ago,” she said.

She said that the fruits of this work have been made possible through the sustained technical assistance of this first program, which began in 2006 with an initial investment of 48 million Euros, to which another 15 million Euroswere added in 2009.

With the agreement, the European Union delegates to the AECID a total of 45.5 million euros,part of the funds for its Programof Support for the Education Sector in the Dominican Republic (PAPSE II), for the Spanish agency to implement the technical assistance component and support to MINERD.

Ambassador Irene Horejs indicated that the agreement seeks to facilitate European cooperation, and make it more efficient, straightforward and aligned with the work of MINERD.

Meanwhile, the Ambassador of Spain, Jaime de Lacadena, said that the agreement marks a milestone in the construction of a new architecture of international aid coordination in the key sectors of the European cooperation in the country.

In turn, the National Authorizing Officer of the European Funds for Development, Engineer Antonio Vargas Hernández, highlighted the progress that the country has made in the various areas and aspects, thanks to the cooperation of the European Union.

The implementation of the agreement will draw on the Dominican Initiative for Quality Education (IDEC – Iniciativa Dominicana por una Educación de Calidad) as themechanism for coordinating dialogue between the Dominican government, civil society and international cooperation.

The event took place at the European Union headquarters in Santo Domingo.Among the attended were: MINERD’sDeputy Minister of Planning,Engineer Víctor Sánchez; the Coordinator of the IDEC, Radhames Mejía’;María de Jesús Conde, Representative of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF); and Carlos Cano, Director of the AECID in the Dominican Republic.


From left to right, Engineer Antonio Vargas Hernández, the National Authorizing Officer of the European Funds for Development; Irene Horejs, Ambassador of the European Union; Jaime de Lacadena, Ambassador of Spain, and the Minister of Education, Mrs. Josefina Pimentel.