NewsWhore
10-14-2010, 05:20 PM
Georges Santoni, president of Action for Education (Educa), a non-governmental organization, is calling on the government to end the practice of changing school textbooks. He said that the only ones that should change are science textbooks. He said that the quick rotation of books affected the family budget because the changes meant that books could not be passed on to younger siblings.
Santoni was interviewed by the Hoy media group, along with fellow members of the non-governmental organization.
Santoni was critical of the fact that this year the government has only allocated 1.98% of the GDP to the Ministry of Education, in violation of several agreements. He said that the government had committed to 3.42% of GDP in 2011, or RD$71.8 billion in the 2008-2018 Ten-Year Education Plan. Despite this, he said, the Executive Branch submitted a budget for RD$41.5 billion.
Santoni said that education is a matter of setting priorities. He said the Ten-Year Plan sets out how the resources would be used to build classrooms, remodel and maintain others and train teachers. "That is hyper-documented. What happens is that priorities need to be established. A classroom can be built with US$60,000 more or less. Then with how many yipetas (luxury SUVs) can a classroom be built? That is where the priorities are," he complained.
Santoni advocated the decentralization of schools, saying that schools should be able to manage their own budgets. He said this has been agreed by in the Ten-Year Plan and the General Education Law. He calls for the creation of associations within the schools that would be in charge of managing their own funds.
Juan Tomas Tavares, founder of Educa, expressed his concern about the poor quality of graduates. He mentioned that of the 30,000 students studying education at the state university (UASD), the average grade upon entering the university is 55 out of 100. "One of our criteria is that there should be restricted access to study education. We should not assume that if a student is not good for anything, not even for being in the military, he should study education," he commented in Hoy.
Educa secretary Giovanni D'Alessandro stressed that education should be the first area taken into account when working on strengthening local institutions. "But we are not giving the ministry a chance when they do not have the funds to meet their own goals," he stated.
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#8)
Santoni was interviewed by the Hoy media group, along with fellow members of the non-governmental organization.
Santoni was critical of the fact that this year the government has only allocated 1.98% of the GDP to the Ministry of Education, in violation of several agreements. He said that the government had committed to 3.42% of GDP in 2011, or RD$71.8 billion in the 2008-2018 Ten-Year Education Plan. Despite this, he said, the Executive Branch submitted a budget for RD$41.5 billion.
Santoni said that education is a matter of setting priorities. He said the Ten-Year Plan sets out how the resources would be used to build classrooms, remodel and maintain others and train teachers. "That is hyper-documented. What happens is that priorities need to be established. A classroom can be built with US$60,000 more or less. Then with how many yipetas (luxury SUVs) can a classroom be built? That is where the priorities are," he complained.
Santoni advocated the decentralization of schools, saying that schools should be able to manage their own budgets. He said this has been agreed by in the Ten-Year Plan and the General Education Law. He calls for the creation of associations within the schools that would be in charge of managing their own funds.
Juan Tomas Tavares, founder of Educa, expressed his concern about the poor quality of graduates. He mentioned that of the 30,000 students studying education at the state university (UASD), the average grade upon entering the university is 55 out of 100. "One of our criteria is that there should be restricted access to study education. We should not assume that if a student is not good for anything, not even for being in the military, he should study education," he commented in Hoy.
Educa secretary Giovanni D'Alessandro stressed that education should be the first area taken into account when working on strengthening local institutions. "But we are not giving the ministry a chance when they do not have the funds to meet their own goals," he stated.
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#8)