Santo Domingo – President Luis Abinader reaffirmed his commitment to Dominican education and his support for the national agreement on educational reform as a guarantee of true economic and social growth that is sustainable over time.
“We can have very good growth, gentlemen, as we have had for several years, but economic growth will never be sustainable over time and will never become true economic and social development, if our people do not have the education due and that is missing in the Dominican Republic,” he said.
The president stated that his presence at this meeting is a sign of his commitment to education and with the support of the national pact for educational reform, of which he was a signatory.
“A firm commitment that we have since we came to government,” he emphasized.
Leading the Thirteenth Plenary Assembly of the National Pact for Educational Reform 2014-2030 in the Las Cariátides Hall of the National Palace, in which the advances and achievements obtained to date in pre-university, university and professional technical matters were shown, He said that despite coming to government in the midst of a pandemic, he did so with very clear and objective priorities.
In this sense, he explained that throughout the world the education sector was the most affected by the pandemic and where there was the greatest setback, for which he considered that it is necessary to try to gain that space and make planning to recover lost time in a adequate.
“I repeat and reiterate that our government is committed to the pact,” he said.
Abinader added that the great challenge of these pacts is implementation, but that with good management they will plan in consensus to achieve better results.
Engaged in consensus
“We are committed to consensus and I am going to participate so that it is all in consensus. Many times it will not be unanimity, but it will be in consensus, where it is and can be in agreement with the majority, in the implementation, in agreement in the execution with those responsible and something very important that we have not done since 2014 that It’s the measurement,” he said.
He said that the measurement will determine whether what was planned is correct or not and that for this he has asked some private institutions for help so that they collaborate with the statistical part and the quarterly or semi-annual measurement, as something fundamental, to confirm if what was decided works correctly. properly.
The governor maintained that it is a task of making resources more efficient so that the expected results can be obtained.
“And obviously with this I don’t want to blame anyone, any government and any sector, but we should have made more progress. Which is the reason? Well, we are going to look for it to correct it and do it with a patriotic sense where we are rational and sensible”, he expressed.
And he added: Politics will never be on the side, but we do have to discuss it, as we should do with these discussions, with firmness of the positions that each one has, but at the same time with prudence, with rationality and with respect and we are going to work to make it so.
The head of state proposed that everyone come to expose the criticisms they have, their disagreements or proposals for solutions.
He considered that the recommendations of this assembly should be ready in the next three months and that he hopes that there can be some sincere conclusions, discussed among all.
President Abinader explained that the great challenge is to achieve that commitment from everyone, from the Dominican society that is here, very well represented and that the other political parties participate.
He said that he will be attentive, on some occasions he will participate bringing proposals and ideas and that the vice president will also do so, always through the Ministry of Education, Mescyt and INFOTEP they will be working for planning, implementation and that this be accompanied by the budgets.
Commitment to improving educational quality
The opening words were given by the president of the Economic and Social Council (CES), Rafael Toribio, who thanked the president for his decision to be present and preside over this assembly and considered that it is the ratification of his commitment to improving quality of Dominican pre-university, university and professional technical education.
“Because being one of its signatories, it has prioritized education as the axis for the continued development of the nation, for the benefit of all Dominicans. We return again to the educational pact with the willingness to claim the comprehensive vision of the educational sector and to carry out the adjustments that are required according to the new reality that corresponds to us and to the generations that are emerging,” Toribio said.
He reported that for the continuation of the work after this assembly, they will form an institutional space in which they will integrate the representatives of the political parties with representation in the National Congress, as agreed in the methodology of the plenary of the dialogue for the reforms for the institutional strengthening and efficient management of the State.
Achievement for the educational system of the country
The Minister of Education, Roberto Fulcar, made a presentation on the status of pre-university education, and explained that this is a great achievement for the country’s educational system because this is a space that brings together many suffering from education.
“I think that the interruption that there has been in the processes of conversations, consultations and corrective reflections within the framework of the pact, caused by various causes, especially the cause of the pandemic, come to an end and we return to that path of conversions, of collective production and also of progressive and systematic balances to the state of education”, explained Fulcar.
The deputy minister of Planning and Educational Development, Julissa Hernández, and the technical adviser of the Institutional Strategic Plan of the Ministry of Education, Pedro Guerrero, summarized the latest institutional evaluation of the agreements and policies of the educational pact; as well as the progress and achievements of the projects that are underway.
Compliance with the provisions of the agreement
While the Minister of Higher Education, Science and Technology, Franklin García Fermín, spoke about the state of the situation of university education, he explained that in order to comply with the provisions of the pact, the Meescyt has carried out various actions, among which stand out, the creation of the National Teacher Training System; the development process of the pilot at the higher technical, graduate and postgraduate levels.
Likewise, a support program for higher technical training education in the Dominican Republic; 300,000 students located in 36 universities of the system have been impacted with the theme of social university social responsibility; the signing of an agreement with Microsoft for the training of 3,000 students and professionals in Information and Communication Technology.
Likewise, democratization and equal opportunities to access Higher Education; significant increase in national and international scholarships for undergraduate and postgraduate studies. 8,000 national scholarships and 2,000 international scholarships have been awarded for a total of 10 scholarships in 2021.
