Great hopes at the start of the school year
Diario Libre
President Danilo Medina will inaugurate the 2014-2015 school year at the Padre Eulalio Arias Educational Center in the Cristo Rey sector.
SANTO DOMINGO. With optimism and great expectations in the public's opinion, today begins the 2014 - 2015 school year for 2,705,297 students in both the public and private sectors.
The hope is because the school term now has more than 814,000 students in the extended school day, a model that the authorities are betting on to improve the quality of teaching in the country.
The official act will be headed by President Danilo Medina at 10 o'clock in the morning at the Padre Eulalio Arias educational center of the Cristo Rey sector, in the National District, where yesterday they put the final touches on the preparations for the event.
Contrary to other years where a deficit of schoolrooms stood out, in this new school year they are showing off 6207 new schoolrooms in 422 educational centers.
President Medina has dedicated the last few months to the inauguration of schools in different areas of the country. His goal was to begin the school year with 10,000 new classrooms, but he just managed to build 6207, and he promises to have the rest of the schoolrooms ready before the end of the year. The infrastructure and his bets on the model of the extended school day are the principle objectives of the administration and their "educational revolution."
For the spokesman and director general of Government Communications, Roberto Rodriguez Marchena, this will be the best start of a school year in the history of the Dominican Republic.
Along the same lines, the Minister of Education, Carlos Amarante Baret, referred to the investment by President Medina of 4% of the Gross Domestic Product for education, as ordered by the law, and of which he assured reporters, they are faithfully complying with the implementation of the model of the extended school day of which they are basing themselves for the development of educational activities.
He recalled that the extended school day last year took place in about 622 schools with 200,000 students and this year the enrollment is of 814,000 students.
He said that they are making an effort so that during this year they can reach 900,000 or 1 million students that can enter into the new educational strategy.
In the meantime, with official backing, Amarante Baret has dedicated the last two months in promoting this school year which has a budget of RD $109 billion.
A call to send the children
In his alliance with diverse sectors that have to do with the educational system in what has been called the "educational revolution," Amarante Baret takes into account the participation of the family and, through the Parents Federation's in the different public and private sectors he called upon the parents and tutors to send their children to class as early as possible.
The vice president of the National Federation of Parents of Children in Public Schools (Fedepadres), Jaime Tolentino, invited the parents to join together with the schools "because it's time that education go hand in hand with the family."
New Structure
This year the change in the structure of the educational system will go into effect. This was approved by the National Council of Education. The changes include the substitution of the "basic level" for primary school, which then passes seventh and eighth grades to the secondary level, which will now have a period of six years instead of four.
The primary level will go from the first grade until the sixth. The secondary level will go from seventh to the fourth year of high school. There will be two cycles of six years each one.
The new year brings the innovation of the evaluation of the performance of the teachers, which the ministry announced will begin on 1 September and will end on 15 December of this year.
Of relevance
• For this year the authorities are expecting the attendance of 2,705,297 students in both public and private schools.
• The 40% of this enrollment, equal to 814,474 will be in the extended school day program, the model includes 1722 schools all over the country.
• The ministry Incorporated 6207 new schoolrooms and 422 different schools.
• There will be 1,532,478 students benefiting from the school breakfast program in the regular schools and 814,474 students who will receive lunch and snacks in the extended school day. The authorities are projecting an investment by the government in the school meal programs of RD $13.0 billion.
• The Ministry of Education is projecting the hiring of 8000 teachers and distributing nearly 6,000,000 textbooks; 454,322 uniforms, 273,000 pairs of shoes and around 500,000 backpacks for the students that live in the most vulnerable areas of the country. The semiprivate schools will also receive textbooks from the Ministry.
A Coalition criticizes budgetary expenditures
The movement called "the Dignified Education Coalition" questioned the budgetary expenditures of the 4% of the gross domestic product by the Ministry of Education for the construction of schools in the Barrios in the northern area of the National District.
They indicated that 20% of the 500 schools promised for this area have not yet been awarded under the system of drawings and that "nobody knows" the contractors for 221 projects for school expansions according to an analysis of this spending presented by the Bono Center.
"This lack of inventory of classrooms in the poorest sectors of the National District will deprive 2850 students of various school year," said the coalition in a document.
They indicated that a total of 19,000 students could remain outside of classrooms as the schools that are needed are not built in time.
For the Coalition "only with absolute transparency and compliance with the planning, will it be possible to guarantee the construction of schools according to the real and urgent needs of the population and not just where it is possible."
Members of the community of the Capotillo sector complained that the authorities had still not begun the construction of the Salome Ureña School, where they were promised a school building of 22 classrooms for the extended school day.
SANTO DOMINGO. With optimism and great expectations in the public's opinion, today begins the 2014 - 2015 school year for 2,705,297 students in both the public and private sectors.
The hope is because the school term now has more than 814,000 students in the extended school day, a model that the authorities are betting on to improve the quality of teaching in the country.
The official act will be headed by President Danilo Medina at 10 o'clock in the morning at the Padre Eulalio Arias educational center of the Cristo Rey sector, in the National District, where yesterday they put the final touches on the preparations for the event.
Contrary to other years where a deficit of schoolrooms stood out, in this new school year they are showing off 6207 new schoolrooms in 422 educational centers.
President Medina has dedicated the last few months to the inauguration of schools in different areas of the country. His goal was to begin the school year with 10,000 new classrooms, but he just managed to build 6207, and he promises to have the rest of the schoolrooms ready before the end of the year. The infrastructure and his bets on the model of the extended school day are the principle objectives of the administration and their "educational revolution."
For the spokesman and director general of Government Communications, Roberto Rodriguez Marchena, this will be the best start of a school year in the history of the Dominican Republic.
Along the same lines, the Minister of Education, Carlos Amarante Baret, referred to the investment by President Medina of 4% of the Gross Domestic Product for education, as ordered by the law, and of which he assured reporters, they are faithfully complying with the implementation of the model of the extended school day of which they are basing themselves for the development of educational activities.
He recalled that the extended school day last year took place in about 622 schools with 200,000 students and this year the enrollment is of 814,000 students.
He said that they are making an effort so that during this year they can reach 900,000 or 1 million students that can enter into the new educational strategy.
In the meantime, with official backing, Amarante Baret has dedicated the last two months in promoting this school year which has a budget of RD $109 billion.
A call to send the children
In his alliance with diverse sectors that have to do with the educational system in what has been called the "educational revolution," Amarante Baret takes into account the participation of the family and, through the Parents Federation's in the different public and private sectors he called upon the parents and tutors to send their children to class as early as possible.
The vice president of the National Federation of Parents of Children in Public Schools (Fedepadres), Jaime Tolentino, invited the parents to join together with the schools "because it's time that education go hand in hand with the family."
New Structure
This year the change in the structure of the educational system will go into effect. This was approved by the National Council of Education. The changes include the substitution of the "basic level" for primary school, which then passes seventh and eighth grades to the secondary level, which will now have a period of six years instead of four.
The primary level will go from the first grade until the sixth. The secondary level will go from seventh to the fourth year of high school. There will be two cycles of six years each one.
The new year brings the innovation of the evaluation of the performance of the teachers, which the ministry announced will begin on 1 September and will end on 15 December of this year.
Of relevance
• For this year the authorities are expecting the attendance of 2,705,297 students in both public and private schools.
• The 40% of this enrollment, equal to 814,474 will be in the extended school day program, the model includes 1722 schools all over the country.
• The ministry Incorporated 6207 new schoolrooms and 422 different schools.
• There will be 1,532,478 students benefiting from the school breakfast program in the regular schools and 814,474 students who will receive lunch and snacks in the extended school day. The authorities are projecting an investment by the government in the school meal programs of RD $13.0 billion.
• The Ministry of Education is projecting the hiring of 8000 teachers and distributing nearly 6,000,000 textbooks; 454,322 uniforms, 273,000 pairs of shoes and around 500,000 backpacks for the students that live in the most vulnerable areas of the country. The semiprivate schools will also receive textbooks from the Ministry.
A Coalition criticizes budgetary expenditures
The movement called "the Dignified Education Coalition" questioned the budgetary expenditures of the 4% of the gross domestic product by the Ministry of Education for the construction of schools in the Barrios in the northern area of the National District.
They indicated that 20% of the 500 schools promised for this area have not yet been awarded under the system of drawings and that "nobody knows" the contractors for 221 projects for school expansions according to an analysis of this spending presented by the Bono Center.
"This lack of inventory of classrooms in the poorest sectors of the National District will deprive 2850 students of various school year," said the coalition in a document.
They indicated that a total of 19,000 students could remain outside of classrooms as the schools that are needed are not built in time.
For the Coalition "only with absolute transparency and compliance with the planning, will it be possible to guarantee the construction of schools according to the real and urgent needs of the population and not just where it is possible."
Members of the community of the Capotillo sector complained that the authorities had still not begun the construction of the Salome Ureña School, where they were promised a school building of 22 classrooms for the extended school day.
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