Elena Viyella: "The quality of the longer school day is fundamental"

SD. The president of Business Action for Education (Educa), Elena Viyella de Palia, said that the quality is fundamental in order for the extended school day, which is being implemented in 579 public schools in the country, to be successful.

"Because we do nothing extending the school day if the quality of what we are teaching is not improved; on the contrary, what will happen is that it is going to cost us twice, but they are going to waste their time and perhaps we achieve a small improvement in their nutrition, but little more," she said.

The new school day, which increases class time from four to eight hours a day, began last year, and according to the businesswoman, "we are still in the process of seeing the results."

"We have to measure those results from the investment that has been made, and compare them with the results of the four hour school day, in order to insure ourselves that we are really measuring and achieving an improvement in the quality of what we are doing," she suggested.

And it is, according to the representative of the private sector on the issue of education, if society neglects this relationship of this model, what has happened in other countries could happen here, which is the extended school day becomes the "slow school day" in which the students learn the same, but they spend more time in the schools at a much higher cost for the state. "This is not what we want," she stressed.

Challenges

For the director of Educa, one of the challenges of the extended day is to see how the parents become involved so that they monitor the process and can demand improvements.

"The other thing is to achieve that the kids really learn in the classroom in order that when they go to do their homework they can do it without help, because we also have to know, I mean, I have always believed firmly myself, that the responsibility for the homework is in the kids, it is their first obligation," Viyella de Paliza emphasized.

"Party politics has got to get out of the educational system"

The private sector argues for parties and politics to get out of the Dominican educational system, and that on the other hand, quality is what counts. Asked about the proposal of the sectors that suggest dividing the Ministry of Education in one part administrative and the other teaching, the president of Educa said that this issue is not to divide it but to strengthen it.

"We feel that politics have to get out of education, or party politics, if we want to call it that, because what really has to count is the quality," stressed Viyella.

In this sense, she recalled that in the Pact for Education which is being discussed now, it was agreed to strengthen the National Educational Council, in order that it will have more strength in outlining educational policies for the country. Likewise, she was of the opinion that it requires the participation and demands of society in order to guarantee the quality and compliance.

"Better teachers, better citizens"

"Better teachers, better citizens, better country," is the motto of the campaign of social action that Educa is carrying out, with the aim of improving the quality of the teachers in the public sector and to attract talent to education.

The president of the institution, Elena Viyella de Paliza, explained that the objective is ‘that we once again become a society that values our teachers, but also that our teachers commit themselves to be better trained, to better train (the students) and to be will willing to continue every day." All this she said has to be accompanied with better salaries for the teachers. The campaign has radio ads, has distributed promotional materials and maintains a presence on the social media of Facebook and Twitter. They also handle concepts such as "I want a quality education" and "I am a great citizen, thanks to a great teacher."

Educa changes

Viyella explained that the initiative is part of the changes which Educa has undergone, in order to be more effective impact on good public policies. Educa, which used to make projects on education, now just coordinates them.

She denies that they have wanted to exclude the UASD from the Pact

"I believe that the most vocal institution in the Pact was the UASD, which took part on all of the issues with their positions," answered the Educa president in regard to the accusations of the president of the Dominican Association of Teachers (ADP), Eduardo Hidalgo, who accused them of wanting to boycott the Pact for Educations by excluding the state university.

She assured the reporters that in Educa what they want is a public education system that works, because in her judgment the "private (education) obligatorily improves in the same proportion that there is a good public education." "We want quality in the system, we want that it should be inclusive, but we also have to be demanding and tough for it to work, and in this sense, there are people who are bothered that we are demanding with the quality, and that we insist," the businesswoman said.

She explained that what they are seeking is that all of the universities "comply with some requirements, with a curriculum and with some competence," in order that when the professionals graduate, they have the same abilities. "We understand that it is not fair for a student, who because he goes to university A or B whether public or private, suddenly finds out that he invested four years of his life and has no competence."