Four ministries will work together to improve the quality of primary education
Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, September 4, 2012
The Ministries of Education, Culture, Sports and Youth have outlined an inter-ministerial agreement aimed at improving the quality of primary education, in the context of integral development and the National Strategy for Development.
Through the inter-Ministerial agreement, they commit themselves to establishing joint programs that would enhance the economic and human resources that have been earmarked for primary educationand make them more efficient.
The agreement was announced during a press conference held in the Ercilia Pepin room in the Ministry of Education (MINERD), where the following Ministers were present: Josefina Pimentel, Education; Jose Antonio Rodriguez, Culture; Jaime David Fernandez Mirabal, Sports; and Jorge Minaya, Youth.
Through the inter-Ministerial agreement, they commit themselves to establishing joint programs that would enhance the economic and human resources that have been earmarked for primary educationand make them more efficient.
They also agreed to coordinate actions to promote social organization from the school, and a permanent state-society relationship; to implement comprehensive development strategies where education is the axis;to promote projects aimed at overcoming all forms of poverty, violence and exclusion;to maintain a permanent willingness to workat theinter-Ministerial level and to nurture their relationship with health, the environment, gender equality and all other Government social policies.
The Education Minister said that the Ministries, through a joint plan, will focus their efforts so that children, through art, sports and the voluntary work of young people that permeates the Dominican education system, will be able to develop joint efforts to enhance human resources.
“We want the government to ratify its willingness to work jointly and from a cross-sectorial point of view where each specific area dedicates its resources and synergies for the benefit of a common goal: to strengthen the quality of Dominican education,” she said.
Minister Pimentel explained that the area of ??culture will work on the development of the Arts in all its forms of expression, the cultural identity of the people, to restore the importance of singing and the school theater, and to integrate all the regions so that all thatheritage and wealth are shifted to the schools.
With the Ministry of Sports they will work to strengthen physical education and school sports. In addition, this agency will put at the disposal of the schools and colleges of the country the sports facilities, the monitors that the agency has available in the different disciplines and the joint support for the implementation of the School Sports Games and other activities that children and youth undertake.
“The sectorial work of the Ministry of Sports adds value to what we do through that agency. In this case, the school will be a fittingscenario for which this Ministry may also promote policies that are at the service of the integral education of our children and the strengthening of the quality in education,”the Minister said.
Regarding the Ministry of Youth, there will be coordinated efforts to incorporate youth in the literacy campaigns and to have them work on tasks such as environmental education, training in values and programs that encourage their return to school.
“These Ministries, through this declaration of intent, want to announce to the country their intentionto work in a cross-sectorial and inter-ministerial manner, to coordinate the efforts that each area develops to serve the quality of education and to contribute to the full and comprehensive development of our children, adolescents and adults, who are part of the national education system,” the Education Minister stated.
From left to right, the Ministers of Culture, José Antonio Rodríguez; Sports, Jaime David Fernandez Mirabal; Education, Josefina Pimentel; and Youth, Jorge Minaya, during the press conference which unveiled the ministerial agreement to strengthen the quality of Dominican education
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