Students Show Off their Talent in the First Congress on Cultural Initiatives

Students Show Off their Talent in the First Congress on Cultural Initiatives
Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic 10/18/2013

The Ministry of Education (MINERD in Spanish), through its Office of Culture, held the First Congress on Cultural Initiatives last Thursday that was attended by 500 students from 17 schools of the 10th and 15th Regional Offices of Santo Domingo, the National District and delegations from the interior of the country.

The activity brought together a variety of talent from the various public and private junior high and high schools that performed as part of the program that included theater presentations, conferences, talks and other manifestations of art.

The activity brought together a variety of talent from the various public and private junior high and high schools that performed as part of the program that included theater presentations, conferences, talks and other manifestations of art.

Once the Congress was underway, Deputy Minister of Technical and Pedagogical Services, Luis Enrique Matos de la Rosa, who spoke as a representative of the Education Minister Carlos Amarante Baret, said the content of this event is a clear demonstration of the links that should exist between culture and education.

“They are both social functions that should go hand-in-hand. This should be done by each one and by the media they both use,”said Luis Enrique Matos de la Rosa.

Matos de la Rosa added that with support from this initiative, MINERD is sending a message to the leadership in the areas of culture and education that they should go forward hand-in-hand.

Meanwhile, the Director General of Culture of MINERD, Rafael García Romero, indicated that MINERD, through this office, intends to support the construction of public places needed in the DR for cultural use that can be used for activities after adults are encouraged to participate in activities in these spaces.

He specified that the Congress’s program was designed with various cultural manifestations as a way of showing what young people can do thanks to a mature talent that was brought out with the necessary tools.

Representatives of the Media Salomé Ureña School, which put on the play  “Salomé,” participated in the First National Congress held at the Juan Bosch Auditorium of the Pedro Henríquez Ureña National Library. Others included the singer, Yarileixi Toledo, from the Madre Rafaela Ibarra  School; students from the Pilar Constanzo Polytechnic School showed a film on the school’s film plans; the Santa Clara school did their own performance of the Duarte Bicentenary and the Information and Communication Technology (ICTs) and Otilia Peláez recited the poem “Aire Negro” by poet Manuel del Cabral.

The musical group of the Santa Ana Polytechnic School delighted the audience with a potpourri of merenguesongs while students from Quisqueya College participated in Viajando por Quisqueya (Traveling for Quisqueya).