MINERD presents presidential goals for quality education

MINERD presents presidential goals for quality education
Dominican Republic, Santo Domingo December 13, 2012

MINERD presentedthe presidential goals for quality education.With the aim of complying with President Danilo Medina’s initiative on follow up and monitoringof policies and activitiesundertaken by the ministries in the framework of the Presidential Goals, the Ministry of Education (MINERD) presented to the members of System of Information and Management for Governance (SIGOB for its acronym in Spanish)its compendium of eleven goals that have been formulated by the Ministry.

She noted that this will help build a follow up and monitoring strategy together with the civil society, as well as with other Government agencies and international organizations.

Education Minister, Josefina Pimentel, led the first meeting of the agencywhere MINERD’s presidential goals, which were outlinedand discussed in the context of the Dominican Initiative for Quality Education (IDEC for its acronym in Spanish), were presented.

The President’s initiative aims to identify the challenges and the advances that the processes create, so that the government, in an attempt to organize the support processes and articulate the views of the ministries,has an idea of ??how the lines of action are working.

Mrs. Pimentel said that the purpose of the first meeting of the agency was to find out what is the Ministry of the Presidency’s methodological proposal for monitoring and support, through the implementation of the System of Presidential Goals, an initiative of President Danilo Medina.

She noted that this will help build a follow up and monitoring strategy together with the civil society, as well as with other Government agencies and international organizations.

Meanwhile, the coordinator of Institutional Goals, Engineer Victor Sánchez, Deputy Minister and director of the Office of Planning,explained that they discussed the idea of ??sharing the description of each of the goals, and that they also identified the products to be achieved and the intermediate milestones for each of them.

In addition to the risks and threats associated with the attainmentor not of these goals, Goals Managers, Dr. Pedro Luis Castellanos, director of Special Programs in the Office of the President, and Mrs. MirianCamilo, director general of Youth and AdultEducation, both members of the National Board of Literacy, were in charge of the presentation on Literacy, Modernization and Restructuring of the Ministry of Education (MINERD), respectively.

The Deputy Minister of the Office of Monitoring, Evaluation and Control of Education Quality, Dr. JorgeAdarbertoMartínez, made a presentation oncompliance with the school calendar and daily operating hours, while the Deputy Minister of Technical and Pedagogical Affairs, MinervaVincent, dealt with the issue of schools with extended classroom hours.

The following persons also spoke about the goals of their respective areas: the Vice-Minister of Certification and Development of the TeachingTraining Career, Saturnino de los Santos;the director general of Secondary Education, Mrs. Elsa Sánchez; and the director of Curriculum, Mrs. Carmen Sánchez.

Meanwhile, the director general ofPrimary Education, Mrs. Rita Ceballos, announced the goal Improving Primary Education: First grades and internal efficiency; René Jáquez and Nelson de los Santos, both from the National Institute of Student Welfare, spoke about the student support to vulnerable populations; and Engineers Claudia de los Santos, from the Ministry of Public Works and Communications, and José Florencio, from the Office of Engineers Overseeing State Works (OISOE) presented the goalClassroom Construction, Expansion and Rehabilitation.

Also invited were the director of Purchasing and Hiring, Carolyn DayannaGuzmán; legal consultant, Carmen Reyes; thedirector of Communications and Public Affairs, Rosa María Jiménez; andthe director of Budget Programming and Economic Studies, David Lapix.

The presentation of the goals helped MINERD’sadministrative support team to identify where the bottlenecks are formed, so that they can be eliminated during the process and implementation of the predefined activities, according to Engineer Sánchez.

Also present were the Vice Minister of the Presidency responsible for Government Monitoring and Coordination, LoraimaCuello, and SIGOB-UNDP’s (System of Presidential Goals – United Nations Program for Development) Regional Project coordinator, Miguel Cereceda.

MINERD’s Committee onMinisterial Goals is made of directors of the institution who are responsible for the various thematic areas linked to the unit in question.


Education Minister, Josefina Pimentel, leading the meeting where MINERD’s Ministerial Goals Committee was introduced