The Ministry of Education began the process to acquire high school level books, texts that will be used for the next school year 2022-2023, since this school year ends in less than two months.
With an investment of 2,539 million pesos, the Minerd launched the tender that will be carried out through an exclusivity exception process, which was published on its website on April 22. The documents published on the institution’s website indicate that the books will be distributed for the following school year.
On February 16, the National Council of Education approved the bibliography of high school books in digital format from the different areas and for all enrollment that represents the level.
The books were approved by Santillana, SM, Mac Graw Hill, Cocolo Editorial, Alfa y Omega, Casa Duarte, United Editions of the Caribbean, Salomé Editions, Actualidad Escolar, CP, Susaeta, Camart, Disesa.
The high school books will be in PDF file and will run on the digital whiteboards, which have an internal storage of 32 GB and each publisher must deliver the texts on a device that can be nebook of student, tablets or laptop for teachers, in order to verify their performance.
High school students have spent the entire school year without updated textbooks, but they will be assessed at the end of the term with national tests.
The update process
The Education authorities have explained that the delay in delivering the textbooks This is because they went through a long process, which included two evaluations, one by the Minerd Curriculum Directorate and the other by the Organization of Ibero-American States for Education, Science and Culture (OEI) and these expert reports had to be reconciled.
The books approved by the National Council of Education are those that obtained a final grade of between 90 and 100 points in the evaluation, according to the Ministry of Education. The texts that obtained a score between 88 and 89 points were also admitted, considering that the recommendations made by the evaluation team were rectifiable.
Outdated books in schools
The textbooksused in public educational centers were obsolete because they had not been updated despite the fact that the Ministry of Education completed the review and update of the current curriculum since 2013.
Classes were being taught with texts that the Ministry had reprinted from those published in 2004, 2005 or 2006. The situation has also led teachers to photocopy texts designed for the private sector to complement their lesson plan.
The Minerd completed the revision and update of the curriculum, with eight designs related to the initial, primary and secondary levels, with all its modalities; as well as basic education for young people and adults.
The secondary curriculum for young people and adults, at the end of 2020, was in its final phase to be submitted for approval by the National Council of Education for the validation process in the classrooms.
