Amarante Baret Recognizes Districts and Schools that Won Medals at the 2013 Quality Award

Amarante Baret Recognizes Districts and Schools that Won Medals at the 2013 Quality Award
Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic, 03/26/2014

The Minister of Education, Mr. Carlos Amarante Baret, on Tuesday delivered award certificates and cash prizes equivalent to RD$1,750,000 to two School Districts and three schools that won bronze medals during the 2013 National Award for Quality and Promising Practices in the Public Sector, which is provided by the Ministry of Public Administration (MAP).

The winners received the award during a ceremony held in the Ercilia Pepín Hall, at MINERD headquarters.

During the activity, Amarante Baret said that, in an unprecedented event, the 10-04 East Santo Domingo and 15-03 Santo Domingo Educational Districts were awarded the bronze medal in 2013. The following schools also won prizes: Las Colinas of District 05-01 of San Pedro de Macorís; Laura Vicini viuda Barletta of District 05-02, also of San Pedro de Macorís; and, the Cristo Rey Parish School of District 15-04 of Santo Domingo.

The Minister of Education ordered the transfer of RD$500,000 to each of the two winning Educational Districts and RD$250,000 to each of the schools, for a total of RD$1,750,000.

He said that, initially, RD$100,000 would be transferred to each school and RD$200,000 to each Educational District, and that the remaining transfers will be completed according to the pace of development of their improvement plans for the 2013-2014 and 2014-2015 school years. The technical team of the School of Directors will do the monitoring.

Amarante Baret said that the objective of the recognition is to encourage the winners of the medal awarded by the MAP and, at the same time, to send a message to all School Principals and Regional and District Directors to understand that this is the example to follow in Dominican schools.

Leadership is needed

The Minister of Education reiterated that schools need leadership and commitment for the implementation of the educational revolution promoted by President Danilo Medina.

“Leadership in the Ministry of Education is embodied, not in us, not in the central government officials; the leadership in the Dominican schools is and should be embodied in the Regional Directors, Districts Directors, and School Principals”, he said.

He said that if there is no leadership in schools, these schools will look like a ship adrift, because leadership speaks of men and women committed to their schools, their District or Regional sectors, with the management ability to administrate processes.

He also highlighted that the awarded District Directors and School Principals were students of MINERD’s School of Directors. He also stressed that the experience on quality management developed in the Dominican schools last year was disseminated through a panel at the Ibero-American Congress of Public Administration, held in Montevideo, Uruguay.

Last year, in a joint effort, the School of Directors and the Directorate for Audit and Control of Educational Processes provided intense training, guidance, and support to Regional and District Directorates, and schools, so that they could compete for the award. As a result, and for the first time, 31 educational institutions, including one Regional, several District and many schools, competed for the award.

The award is based on Decree 211-10, which states the mandatory nature of the implementation of the Common Assessment Framework (CAF Model) in public administration. A version adapted for schools is available since 2010, which was applied in the country in 2013.

The ceremony was headed by the Minister of Education and the welcome speech was delivered by the Deputy Minister in charge of the Office of Evaluation of the Quality of Education, Dr. Adarberto Martínez. Mrs. Sobeida Sánchez Pérez, Director of Regional 10 Santo Domingo, thanked the audience.

In addition, the following authorities were present: the Directors of Regionals 5 and 15, Braulio Félix Rivera, and Ana Francisca Suero, respectively. Similarly, Anastasia de la Cruz, Director of the Las Colinas school; Ingrid Teresita Vásquez, Director of the Laura Vicini widow viuda Barletta school; Agustín Heredia Medina, Director of District 10-04; Lourdes Hiciano, Director of District 10-03; and, Training Program Coordinators, Francisco Estrella, Roberto Rodríguez, Porfirio Encarnación, and Kenny Luis Fabián.