The director of the Editorial Unit of the Ministry of Education of the Dominican Republic (Minerd), Manuel Núñez, stressed that with the Open Book project, through which the State developed textbooks for students in the public sector, the expected projections have been achieved, which are quality, coverage and free of charge, distributing to date more than 8 million copies, both physical and digital, nationwide.
Núñez said this while participating as a panelist this Thursday in the International Congress of the Dominican Institute for Evaluation and Research of Educational Quality (IDEICE), which is being held from December 6 to 8, where the Minister of Education, Ángel Hernández, was also present.
He also emphasized that in order to respond to the coverage, two types of editions were applied: one for the printed part and the availability of these on the Minerd portal, which meant a timely and unprecedented operation.
While speaking at the panel “The textbook in Dominican education”, the director of the Editorial Unit said that in order to obtain quality textbooks, the academies and universities were in charge of their creation, understanding that this is where the largest number of qualified people, who are the bulk of the country’s intelligence, are concentrated.
He said that the production of the books, which had not reached the secondary level for 10 years, was a tripartite operation, which included agreements with the academies, the private sector and the State for the unification of criteria, with the coordination of the Curriculum Unit of the Minerd, to evaluate them with the necessary selectivity.
The third aspect highlighted by Núñez during his speech was the free provision of books, which has allowed for significant savings for families.
“The book is the best ally of teaching, it is the pact that is established between the student and the teachers, on the content of teaching and the active presence of the curriculum in the classroom. Without textbooks, teachers run the risk that teaching becomes chaotic and does not make sense in such a large system,” said Núñez.
He expressed that previously around 5,000 million pesos were invested in the production of school books, and that the Minerd managed to fulfill that operation with an amount of 1, 200 million, with which the third point of the policy, which is the quality of the expenditure, has also been assured.
He added that, to date, 72 books have been published, which are in the classrooms and on the Minerd platform, reaching more than 2 million students.
The event, which this year has the slogan Educational Quality: Innovating and Improving through Research and Evaluation, and in which national and international panelists participate, aims to promote the exchange of experiences, knowledge and best practices in the educational field, which contribute to the development of policies and strategies that promote educational quality and the formation of critical citizens committed to society.
Source: Presidencia.gob.do
