Education Minister Analyzes Plans for the Next School Year with Regional and District Directors

Education Minister Analyzes Plans for the Next School Year with Regional and District Directors
Santo Domingo Dominican Republic 7/6/2013

The Minister of Education, Josefina Pimentel, led a meeting of regional and district directors with the aim of sharing intervention strategies from the different areas of the ministry with the goal of beginning a successful 2013-2014 academic year and to further expand on the achievements reached by the current government.

Julio Almonte, Director of Educational Media, said the Ministry of Education is preparing for the beginning of the school year, with the acquisition of 387,750 school documents to be used in school tasks.

The agenda of the meeting included preparations for the Competitive Exams for the selection of school principals, teachers and counselors for the coming 2013-2014 school year as well as plans for the Extended Day Program (PJE in Spanish).

In addition, the distribution of text books to be used in elementary and junior high school, reviewing and updating the curriculum, training of summer school teachers, Educational Intervention Strategy and Policy with the ICTs, as well as the progress and expansion of decentralization programs and restructuring of Ethics and Protocol Commissions for the intake and processing of cases.

In her motivating speech, Minister Pimentel said the 2013-2014 school year represented an opportunity to continue the process of improving the educational system. Among the most important goals, the Minister cited the importance of maintaining the pace and progress of “Quisqueya Learns with You” National Literacy Plan.

She also considers the policy gearedtoward 3 to 5-year-old children to be a milestone for the beginning of the upcoming school year because they had not yet worked with this age group through a comprehensive policy and effort from the Presidency of the Republic.

Julio Almonte, Director of Educational Media, said the Ministry of Education is preparing for the beginning of the school year, with the acquisition of 387,750 school documents to be used in school tasks.

He reported that elementary and high schools have text books, teachers manuals and printed educational resources.Meanwhile, for middle schools they are acquiring documents that will be sent to modalities in the arts, professional, technical and general areas of Middle School education.

Days of Summer

A relevant task with a view toward the coming school year, said Minerva Vincent, deputy minister of Technical and Pedagogical Affairs ofMINERD, are the “Days of Summer” with regional and district principals and directors whose purpose was to guide and support the development of teachers and other stakeholders in the education system in order to promote innovative and quality pedagogical practices.

Days of Summer will improve the performance and the work being done in the classroom, create a process of profound reflection about these issues through knowledge and to analyze the innovations incorporated into the curriculum, as part of the review and updating of what is in process.

Other strategies

At the conference, held in the VíctorEstrella Liz (Perito) School,they analyzed other Education Ministry plans, such as the schedule of activities with families, prepared by the Department of Community Participation to integrate and restructure the Association of Parents and Friends of the Schools (APMAE), and a proposal in the Area of Foreign Languages to improve the learning of other languages.

Similarly, Rita Ceballos, Director General of Basic Education, read the Circular No. 12-2013, which provides guidance about the organization of cycles, grades, teachers and school staff in elementary schools and Educational Districts.