Campaign is launched to promote discipline and healthy living in schools

Campaign is launched to promote discipline and healthy living in schools
Dominican Republic, Santo Domingo 23/05/2011

The National Council for Childhood and Adolescence (CONANI) and the Ministry of Education (MINERD) presented the national campaign to promote the Standards of the Dominican Education System for School Living and Discipline in Public and Private Educational Institutions. The purpose of the campaign is to promote a culture of peace and ethical values in the classroom.

“Today, together with the educational system, we are unveiling a fruit borne by this effort, a greater adherence to school by children and adolescents at personal and social risks, which is the best way to protect them from the street and to prevent the risk,”

During the campaign’s opening ceremony, held at the Hotel Barcelo-Lina, the Minister of Education, Josefina Pimentel, argued that in order to prevent violence and to promote the comprehensive development of the students, for years MINERD has promoted regulations for public and private educational institutions, which have been approved, respectively, in Ordinances 4-99 and 4-2000, that establish the framework of students’ rights and duties and the offences that are subject to sanction, insofar as they affect school life.

Similarly, the Minister of Education said that the Teachers’ Statute Regulation includes a disciplinary system which emphasizes the teachers’ respectful and correct behavior with respect towards their students and the entire educational community.

He also said that violent situations periodically reported in the media as a reflection of a broader problem involving the entire society, “represent a threat to the ideal high school scenario,” and to confront it, “the school cannot do it by itself since violence is a social problem and, therefore, its solution involves multiple factors.” He also stressed the need and importance for the education system to strengthen those standards in schools, by involving the community as a whole, with emphasis on the prevention and the promotion of a culture of peace.

Meanwhile, the CEO of the National Council for Children (CONANI), Kirsys Fernandez de Valenzuela, underscored the Dominican Education System Standards for Living and School Discipline in the Public and Private Educational Centers as an important tool to facilitate democracy in the classroom and for the acquisition of ethics values, especially tolerance, which guides the actions and responsibilities of the faculty and staff, the families and the students.

He also explained that the campaign is part an effort to unite a number of institutions in order to reduce the incidence of children on the streets in the Dominican Republic.

“Today, together with the educational system, we are unveiling a fruit borne by this effort, a greater adherence to school by children and adolescents at personal and social risks, which is the best way to protect them from the street and to prevent the risk,” said Fernandez, who added that children already in the streets have also been taken into account in this initiative, but from another association. In this regard, he announced the upcoming start of operations of the first comprehensive care center for children and adolescents on the streets and with drug use problems, resulting from the efforts made by various institutions.

The Standards of the Dominican Education System for School Living and Discipline in Public and Private Educational Institutions will be evaluated for an entire year so that they become a permanent instrument approved by the National Council of Education. MINERD’s Department of Counseling, Psychology and Attention to Diversity will be responsible for the training.

During the ceremony, both MINERD and CONANI thanked the Government of Chile for its cooperation through the Ibero-American Fund for Children, and for the technical and financial assistance provided through its Agency for Cooperation for the implementation of the campaign.

Regarding the cooperation provided by his country for the development of the project, the Chilean Ambassador to the Dominican Republic, Manuel Hinojosa Muñoz, said that his country is concerned about these issues, which are related to social development, combating poverty, and supporting people who are in situations of vulnerability.

“For Chile it is not only a duty but a social commitment with our region and our people in Latin America who are in situations of vulnerability, which is the reason why for us it has been a great pleasure to participate in this project,” emphasized the diplomat.

Meanwhile, Miltiades Ventura, a fourth-year high school student at the Polytechnic Santa Ana, on behalf of the project beneficiaries, “made a call to the student population to devote ourselves in body and soul, together with the education authorities, so that we can achieve a harmonious and peaceful atmosphere, which is what we need and what we want.”

The ceremony was also attended by the Deputy Minister of International Cooperation, Economy, Planning and Development, America Bastida; the Director of International Planning in the Dominican Republic, James Fritz Foster, and students Milciades Ventura and Scarlet Ventura.

From left to right at the main table, Maria Jesus Conde, UNICEF’s representative in the Dominican Republic; James Fritz Foster, Director of DR International Plan; Manuel Hinojosa Muñoz, Ambassador of Chile; the Minister of Education, Lic. Josefina Pimentel; Lic.Kirsys Fernandez de Valenzuela, Executive Director of the National Council for Children (CONANI); America Bastida, Vice-Minister of Economy, Planning and Development; and student Milciades Ventura.

Promotional campaign poster.