Santo Domingo.- The Ministry of Education of the Dominican Republic (Minerd), announced this Monday that the textbooks for the public sector will be ready no later than next August, according to the school calendar for the 2023-2024 school year, which will be prepared by Dominican authors.
According to the Minister of Education, angel hernandezIt is the first time that the contents of the texts will be produced by Dominican writers and authors, which means savings to the government of about RD$4,000 million.
Hernández clarified that these books, aimed especially at students in the public sector, will not have sales costs, but are given free of charge, and that their sale is now prohibited.
Likewise, he maintained that the contents will be available in digital format on the different educational platforms of the Ministry of Education.
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Hernández explained that they seek to provide quality education through the “Open Book” program.
He expressed that the “Open Book” program, as the project has been called, seeks to make quality content with in its different stages supporting the talent of Dominican authors dedicated to the production of academic content in the country.
For the provision of the different books of the public sector, the Minerd has said that the decision is contained in order number 03-2022 of the National Council of Education, endorsed by article 94 literal e, of the General Law of Education 66-97 , which establishes that it is the responsibility of the Minerd to prepare, choose, and disseminate textbooks, as well as their different didactic instruments, etc.
For the execution and elaboration of these texts, the Minerd relied on the Editorial Unit of the organization to hire the future managers of the general production of the didactic contents that will be inserted in each subject.
It was also reported that, for the moment, some 105 books have been granted to the authors for their execution and elaboration, which must be delivered to the Minerd next week for evaluation.
After the announcement at a press conference, Minister Hernández assured that, for the pre-kindergarten, kindergarten level, they are almost ready; while the textbooks corresponding to the 8 subjects at the secondary level, there are about 57, and progress has been made in others.
In this sense, Hernández emphasized that the interest of the Government is that all Dominican students, from every corner of the country, have their quality textbooks, both physical and in PDF, and with the best contents of Dominican authors. .
During the announcement, the former Minister of Education, Jaqueline Malagón, as well as the rector of the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo (UASD), Editrudis Beltrán, and members of the Academy of Science of the Dominican Republic were present.
