Yesterday, Wednesday 22 January, Minister of Education Carlos Amarante Baret announced a plan to prepare, train and equip public schoolteachers at a cost of RD$2.33 billion this year. Studies show that one of the reasons for the low scores of Dominican students in standardized scholastic tests is the deficiency in training of public school teachers in general.
The initiative includes recruiting new teachers, in-service training for teachers and post-graduate degrees for teachers and administrators. The across-the-board program to provide a quality education will spend most of the money (RD$1.39 billion) on in-service programs for the nation’s teaching corps. Teacher certification programs will cost another RD$70 million, and so on. Institutes under the ministry, such as the Salome Urena Higher Institute for Teacher Training, and the National Teacher Training Institute will provide bachelor’s degrees and master’s degrees for 20,495 of the nation’s public schoolteachers. Candidates will be tested according to the guidelines established by the Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Technology.