Last week, the Second Chamber of the Superior Administrative Court (TSA) declared inadmissible the appeal for protection filed by the Dominican Association of Teachers (ADP) against the agreement signed between the Ministry of Education (Minerd) and the Organization of Ibero-American States for Education, Science and Culture (OEI).
The agreement proposes developing the Teaching Performance Evaluation for the period 2024-2025.
The argument of the ADP defines that for the OEI to carry out the evaluation, it had to comply with the regulations that regulate public procurement processes. However, this was not raised during the evaluation carried out in 2017, when the same international organization was hired through a similar contract, under the management of the then minister Andrés Navarro.
On that occasion, the OEI, together with the Dominican Institute for Evaluation and Research of the Educational Quality (IDEICE), was designated to evaluate more than 60,000 teachers throughout the country. Under this same format, the process was carried out without objections from the ADPas recorded in the Diario Libre archives.
In fact, in a publication dated July 13, 2017, the president of the ADPEduardo Hidalgo, expressed his “satisfaction” with the process, highlighting the clarity of the questions and the pace of work of the joint commission that coordinated the evaluation.
“We in the union have reviewed this entire process and we are very satisfied with the pace of work of the commission, which is mixed. It seems to me that the questions are clear and this is going to help us a lot to realize the purpose, which not only It’s the economic issue,” Hidalgo stated on that occasion.
60,000
They are the teachers who must be evaluated, according to the agreement between the OEI and the IDEICE.
At that time, neither the OEI agreement nor the evaluation method were questioned, and the union highlighted the importance of the process to establish a permanent evaluation system.
However, currently, the ADP has shown its rejection of the OEI agreement for the Teaching Performance Evaluation 2024, pointing out that the process was neither competitive nor transparent. The agreement, which involves an approximate investment of 599 million pesos, has generated “concern” among teachers about the capacity of the entity in charge of carrying out the evaluation.
Despite these objections, the ADP has been represented on the National Performance Evaluation Commission, coordinated by the Deputy Minister of Teacher Accreditation and Certification, Frank D’Oleo.
In addition, several members of the Executive Committee of the ADPlike Miguel Pichardo Fernández and Tomás Pichardo Martínez, have actively participated in the coordination of the process, which aims to evaluate approximately 129,953 teachers in the pre-university educational system.
Legal framework and contracting process
In accordance with Law No. 340-06, on Purchases and Contracting of Goods, Services, Works and Concessions, international cooperation agreements are excluded from the scope of this legislation. In this context, the agreement between Minerd and the OEI is framed in a cooperation agreement signed in 2002, and ratified by the National Congress, which has allowed various institutions of the Dominican State to work with the OEI on educational projects.
In May 2024, the Ministry of Education called for an Expression of Interest for the contracting of consulting services in relation to the Teaching Performance Evaluation 2024. However, this consultation was canceled and relaunched twice due to the lack of interested parties. Given this situation, the National Performance Evaluation Commission decided to contact international cooperation organizations, including the OEI, given their experience in similar processes.
Vice Minister Frank D’Oleo explained that, due to the participation of the OEI in the previous evaluation and its international experience, as well as its status as a non-profit public entity, it was decided to continue with this cooperation agreement. In addition, an oversight commission made up of more than 20 institutions in the educational sector was established in order to guarantee the transparency of the process.
“In order to leave installed capacities and for Minerd, through its organizations, to assume continuous performance evaluation processes, which do not have to be episodic every three years, the agreement with the OEI establishes that a technological platform will be installed and a system so that it can later manage the evaluations, which is an achievement that has not been present in other processes,” said D’Oleo.
The objectives of the evaluation
The Teaching Performance Evaluation 2024-2025, which will take place between October 2024 and June 2025, will evaluate teachers in three key areas: knowledge of their work environment, performance in their duties, and their attitudinal and professional dispositions.
This process aims to identify areas of professional improvement, promote promotion in the teaching ranks and strengthen pedagogical practice, with the aim of improving the quality of student learning; Furthermore, it is expected that the evaluation will contribute to the development and professional performance of teachers, through continuous training programs. Also, it will allow educators to access the benefits established by the remuneration and incentive system, both economic and non-economic, in accordance with the General Education Law and the Regulations of the Teaching Statute.
He Ministry of Education has invited all actors in the educational system to participate and accompany this important process, whose fundamental objective is to contribute to the improvement of the quality of education in the Dominican Republic.
The results of the evaluation carried out in 2017 indicate that 73.2% of teachers in the Dominican educational system showed basic or unsatisfactory performance in the classrooms, data that should have put in place the corrective measures, but the process remained in the process. attempt.Only 2.9% of the teachers evaluated obtained the category of excellent or outstanding, while 38.1% of them received the category of improvable or unsatisfactory. As very good or competent, 23.9%, and good or basic, 35.1 percent.
