Education in the DR

[MikeFisher]

David,
my spontaneous answer to that influence would be:
if we're lucky they do not influence it.
sure it is not like that, education can not be provided or managed without the government involved, yeap, so to start something like that seriousley we may need to start to train and educate the government first to let them know what needs to be done trouout the country.
Margaret,
the mentioned time to educate the needed teachers would be IMO a minimum time period in case of the perfect situation that the governmment has all needed financing ready, like 'money on the table', so we could start to breed valuable teachers today.
to do so,
wow, how to bring such in few words, not possible, for that we have the thread, to go on with opinions/ideas/meanings aso,
i say that first of all the gov at all needs to get 'educated', stay on line of educational promises, an agreement within all their parties, or we do a deal today and what happens wit that in 2012 when still not finished?
Mike

[catcherintherye]

Lateacher, do you have the actual numbers for teacher salaries? If you do could you post it or send me a copy please. It would be intteresting to see what kind of compensation they receive. I have no idea.

[PICHARDO]

Fernandez announces agreement with University of Harvard.

NEW YORK. - President Leonel Fernandez announced that the government will sign an agreement next week with a dependence of the University of Harvard to coach teachers with a new system that promises to revolutionize the Dominican educational model.

The head of state explained that through the training of Dominican teachers of intermediate, high school education and in the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo (UASD), will be educated for the application of a new system that promotes critical thought and resolution of conflicts between the students.

He put forward that the agreement will be jointly with WWV and the those teachers that participate will also be able to teach the students how to be able to be adapted to the school of thought that is required in this new century.

He advanced that the training will be online, they will be initiated by the middle of October and that in a first phase, will participate some 90 educators of the levels before indicated.

President Fernandez argued that by means of this promising educational system, the Dominican Republic will be able to pass from a method of education that has been based on the memorization, to a system based on the critical thought and its application to the day by day situations.

He added that at the end of the training, the teachers will be prepared and qualified to help the educators to design a new curriculum a lot more adapted to the needs of the modern times.

The President assured that the Dominican Republic will be benefited of extraordinary form with the agreement, since equally students and teachers will have access to a new vision of learning, more adapted to the reality of the 21st century.

He mentioned that another aspect of great importance for the country is that in the end of the program, the teachers will have received a new base to provide an impulse to the national education system.

Likewise, he expressed that also important transformations in the UASD will be produced, after indicating that such state academy is called to be placed to the height of the most prestigious universities of Latin America.

The President met with the executive director of Harvard's Graduate School of Education, David Zarowin, and the manager of projects for Latin America, Sandhya Klein, who gave the details of how the Dominican Republic in little time will form guardianships in teaching with a new education method so that students are prepared with critical thought and conflict solving.

President Fernandez insisted that with this new system will be produced in the country an educational revolution, generating at the same time a more advanced society and students with critical thought.



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

First phase rolled out...

Thanks to all the input ( good and not so good) from DR1 members that provide critical debate of a very important plan that is morphing and developing as we go along...

As I explained teachers will be trained "online" and until then, we have a sh*t load of work on the national level to bring WiFi to all places in the national territory by the end of summer next year (goal date phase III).

If you think we're crazy about going the Internet age for our education model, thanks Harvard and their actual working model in their faculty...

Microsoft Dominicana is phase II...

As I explained before, our State University and Education dept. will enjoy the best faculty the world can offer from the comfort of their own homes and workplaces... (Didn't believe me, did you?).

Our faculty will be ready for the challenge, but not alone ever!
No country has gone where the DR has challenged us to go in pursue of a 21st century Education System that actually works...

Many foreign faculties are very interested in our project, or the little we allow to filter out! If the political parties of the opposition only new a hint of the scope this plan is aimed at developing, all Hell would break loose in the DR!!!

There are many retired and semi-retired great educators in the world, many of which would be extremely happy to once again take the lectern to impart knowledge and critical thinking; only this time around they'll enjoy a tad larger audience, in the thousands...

When I said that Dominican students would be imparted not two but several languages, it means that the support educators could just as easy be sitting in Yale, Cambridge, France, Russia, etc... We need their knowledge to catapult our young to be critical and think very hard to their limits...

It takes time to roll out such project, but you can believe many people are supporting this plan with the future of our young at stake. We will not fail them this time around...

Don't worry about the funds for the laptops as we have enough deep pockets to push that phase in action...

How about if we continue the debates and who knows? Maybe somebody out there is paying attention here!

[PICHARDO]

Originally Posted by MikeFisher

David,
a 5 years would be needed in case of financings, so not all costs come together at once. to implement technologies in classrooms depend on the available money, like you guys wrote above, it is the starting costs.
given the situation that the finances are ready, the providers could deliver their equipment sure within 3-4 months to every public school, plus an extra time at very remote areas(in case we would need an very helpful internet conection at the school property), each public school place in "blackout" areas in case of electricity would of course need a spare source to keep the computers running during the powerouts.
what i see more timeeating is the fact that ALL public teachers involved in the project would need prior training in the use of the equipment/technologie for themselves first and then they would need training in "how to use it together with the tradidtinal learning as an effective additional source and how to bring such over to the students heads". that is the most time taking factor i would guess, so rereading my sntences i would say your 5 years time plan is not out of the world.
to start a new technologie can be realized in case of the equipment from one day to an other, but to gather the staff which is competent to work with that equipment is a learnng process.
Mike

That's the Achilles tendon of the project. Time is ticking away on this phase and the whole plan needs this phase intermediate at least to advance to other stages...

Indotel is providing ISP's with concessions and the ISP's are providing the hardware to link the national territory at their own expense and agreed timeline. The carrot to ISP's? Think that little debate we had a little while ago on the DR moving effectively to electronic currency within the country...

If you have coverage, your company has the upper hand on terminals; and believe you me! Terminals will be like a waterhole in the desert but in abundance like dust in the roads...

Not ever since the aftermath of San Zenon's destruction and gargantuan rebuilt of the city of SD, has the DR seen so many projects that actually are intertwined to each other being rolled out a the same time...

The gov has a very, very, very heavy load of responsibility to our poor and lower economic classes. We need to provide modern housing and a social scheme that works before all pieces fall into place and the value of properties skyrocket everywhere in the country. Once all the major infrastructure of the DR is renovated and upgrade to 1st world standing, the DR will become a very expensive place to buy a home and live at; such is the first thing to happen once a nation develops into a 1st world standing...

You may think that's a long ways away, if ever...

I'll tell you that we are jumping the old directly into the new, unlike developed countries that still have to deal with the mistakes of their development's failures in the past... How many people today seek to have a land line for phone services? TV over the air?
Now ask how many people IN the DR own a cell phone and have Cable service at home?

So in your opinion, after considering the above, why should the DR copy a decades/centuries old educational system of a 1st world country when it can have the future today being applied and proven to work?

[MikeFisher]

so in how many decades big Fernandez plans to finishe those 'phases'??
he was talking in public,
in foreign public, again, maybe looking for a retirement place for the 'afterwards'.
he also talked about the Metro over there including mentioning that a 2nd metro may come up in santiago.
heck, do you believe any of his Metro words??
i don't, so why should i believe any bigmouthing about a educational revolution?
yes, the teaching of teachers is the first thing, without that nothing else is worth to be done.
to teach teachers is anyways no bad idea, even without such a fabulous project, because we are very far away from having a real educated teacher at every public school in the country.
the involved resolving of missing sources like electricity or wifi to the farest Fincas on the countryside, that will work just fine and fast and cost efficient, exactly like the Metro.
the same 'intelligent' guys there with their great ideas.
it sounds fine,
but it will not bring any education to any kid in this country.
sure that's just my opinion,
looking forward to others on the Think Tank.
Mike

[margaret]

Mike, mike, mike... stop being so skeptical! Ancell Schecker graduate of The Comparative and International Education Policy Program (CIEPP) at the University at Albany, State University of New York, a leading research and training center on global studies in education policy took Harvard's two week seminar and is now National Director of Basic Education. Maybe she has some plans. Does she report to the Minister of Education?

Policy Planning and Analysis for Improving Quality in Education Systems

The following testimonial comes from Ms. Ancell Schecker, Director of Basic Education for the Dominican Republic.

I am a graduate of the Improving Quality in Education Seminar at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. I am happy to inform you that I am now the National Director of Basic Education.

We are in the process of elaborating the Strategic Education Plan for the next ten years and I am the coordinator of the Education For All National Plan.

In this regard my experience at Harvard has been invaluable. Topics we discussed, are a reality in Dominican education.

The contents of the seminar have helped me in analyzing and understanding the situations inherent to my position and in making informed decisions regarding education policies.

Ancell Scheker
Director of Basic Education, State Secretary of Education
Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic

Just think what that students who take the Online program certificate in Technology & Education will do.

Let's hope that the policy makers understand that not everyone has the same learning style. I hope everyone in out think tank will read that long description of the small pilot project in Peru with the One Laptop per Child program. (Hidalgo provided a link to it.) It really gives a good picture of how child-centered that project is and how much team work is involved and the role of teachers, older students, families and community. I hope with this plan, all Hell will not break loose but people will come together. Picardo who would resist such a project and why?

Can we all hold hands and sing "Kumbaya" now?

[catcherintherye]

I have throughly enjoyed the discussion this thread. There have been many good ideas brought forth, and I think we have all have benefited from this exercise. I certainly have learned a lot, and have developed a greater respect for Mike, LaTeacher, and Margaret, to name just a few of the intelligent posters who have contributed here.

However, I keep coming back to the fact that we won't, can't, and perhaps shouldn't have the slightest impact on what develops in the DR's educational system.

I'm not being a nihilist in this regard, but besides allows us a chance to share ideas, what is the purpose of this discussion? BushBaby started me thinking in this vein with his comments about this thread being a de facto think tank. But it goes beyond that. I wonder if any of this is sinking in anywhere, even with Pichardo. And, if it is, what difference does, or should it make?

We have not been asked to provide consultation, nor have we been asked to give any form of assistance whatsoever. I enjoy a good theoretical discussion as much as anyone, but I hate to see all this positive synergy go to waste. I'd much rather make myself available to help build a school, set up a wireless center, or any other type of real concrete contribution.

So if you guys know of any worthy project that needs and wants some hands-on assistance, please let me know. And Margaret, I'll see you later.

[Bayx-**]

Pichardo, do you work for the Department of Education in DR? I get the impression that you are perhaps a professor…please correct me if I’m wrong. You seen to be, well informed about the topic.

Bayx

[MikeFisher]

hey guys,
you are soooo far of the track now,
and i thought there are at least a few who stay in real life with their feet on the floor in such.
Pichardo????
forget about that theme,
he is not discussing here on the thread/bord, he is copying announcements of big Fernandez made somewhere over there to a internet bord.
til today,
IN MY OWN OPINION,
and just in such,
and is it MINE and can be discussed as such,
NOT worth a thing.
because all those news we can also read on listin diario aso,
it just slips our attention when we have a newspaper in our hands looking for info,
because for people like ME MYSELF(i do not speak for anybody else on this planet) such stuff is not readable in the papers, not worth to think about that fabulous ideas, a new Harry Potter x-mas film would be more of this world, and will bring btw a benefit/money/be worth the investments compared to such ideas.
Margaret brought it over exatly the way 'facts/life' is/are.
who cares about one of the thousands 'average' graduates of Albany??????
should each 'average' graduate student of some non dominican univercity be a leader in charge of our educational future because a lad survived a whole year over there and did not get sent home for what ever failure???
i am still waiting for at least SMALL, but reasonable/logical benefits of such.
yes, let that lady be in charge of some parts of our country's education,
thanks good my little one is playing in a kindergarden out of the reach of 'those'.
Pichardo,
bring over at least ONE, just ONE SINGLE post where you explain at least a little piece of all what you post from newspapers over here to the bord, with something like a personal note, personal opinion or explanation, because til now i see only governmental notes copied to the bord and the rest of us can bring in what ever wanted, after a while of silence we get the next "note" copied to the bord.
we are educated enough to read the daily newspapers, even that i don't do such too often because there's not that much beneficial info in it, but if we want we can and do not need a thread about such.
Mike

[MikeFisher]

Originally Posted by Bayx-**

Pichardo, do you work for the Department of Education in DR? I get the impression that you are perhaps a professor…please correct me if I’m wrong. You seen to be, well informed about the topic.

Bayx

sorry Bayxx..,
i see that the complete opposite.
i do by faaaar not see any connection to this real world,
just fabulous phrases made by politicians or one who isn't but want to sound like such.
heck,
i mean even that they all discuss about their two candidates everywhere,
do americans believe any word of one of those before going to Vote??

Mike