All posts are very interesting to say the least, yet I'm a byproduct of the Dominican schooling system, I went to the Instituto Evangelico of Santiago a private school founded and ran by Evangelists, we had to attend a chapel by the corner of Maimon and 27 de Febrero "old Central ave" once a week for the religious curriculum, classes were imparted just like any other school to my knowledge since the curriculum was integral to all schools be it private or public schooling, the only noticeable difference was the settings like structure, facilities, sport complexes etc., I consider myself to be a highly educated individual due in no small part to my formal schooling, I think most of the problems with illiteracy and knowledge today in the student body of the DR can be traced back to the mentors, grossly underpaid and lacking themselves a more stringent formal background than any of the students under their wings.
One very important aspect I was quite amazed with, was the fact given by one of the posters that no public library of merit was available to DR students or general population to this date, at least in Santiago's case there's one private but quite small, something that I'll be looking forward to set as a personal challenge and goal in the coming months...
DR schools lack a lot of things and a student body hungry for knowledge it's not one of them, I own several lots in Santiago, Boca Chica, Puerto Plata, La Vega and other interior communities in the DR on which I'll be willing to build modest edification to accommodate a good number of pupils, with laboratory and visual aid equipment, this centers will not be under the Dept. of Edu. at no time soon, I want to set up a remedial and advanced tutoring on many of these facilities to address immediately the concerns and lacking of the existing schooling system, I believe trying to complement the actual curriculum will be more advantageous than trying to fix it outright and much less costly than an overhaul as many indicate, like fix those things that are broken and leave alone the ones that work for the time being, to this end I think the need for an experienced teaching faculty it's the rule of thumb, and that's where many of those who are willing to share ideas and opinions within this forum will come in handy, are you willing to put into practice what so feverish you proposed here? are you willing to meet a daunting challenge for personal gratification and no monetary gain?
I'll be willing to build modern and technologically to date classrooms, with PC networked workstations, educational CBT software, VPN to faculty members so they could grade and evaluate, prepare curriculum etc. for the pupils from their homes, provide fully stocked laboratories with advanced electronic microscopes and medium, a real hands on lab it's the best way to teach than the word printed, I have several sponsors willing to provide all of the student's utilities like notebooks, pens etc, also will provide funds for educational trips to sponsored industrial facilities to watch firsthand the industrial market for all pupils with their meals and safe transportation provided for.
Since all of these centers will operate on sponsored budgets, I can't offer a paycheck to anyone other than the self gratifying sense of community service, if you're willing to commit to it let me know and we'll work together on a viable plan to accomplish our goals, all input will be welcomed!
Let's do something about it and prove your ideas to be valid for once!
