The Ministry of Education has begun a pilot program to turn high schools into polytechnic schools. The program calls for the technical training facilities of the National Institute for Technical Professional Training (Infotep) so the new graduates can achieve skills that will help them find jobs upon graduation.
The 35,000 students in southwestern San Juan de la Maguana and Elias Piña provinces will be part of the pilot program “Strategy to Transform High Schools into Polytechnics.“ The first phase of the project will cost RD$86 million and seeks to increase the number of students graduating with technical skills by 50%. At present it is estimated that only 19% of students graduate with marketable technical skills.
The program was announced last week by Education Minister Andres Navarro and the director of the National Institute for Technical Professional Training (Infotep), Rafael Ovalles. Ovalles called the alliance “a landmark for the educational system.”
The first phase of the program will take three years for the improvement of the facilities at the chosen schools. Some 10 buses will be purchased to transport the students to the Infotep training center in each location.
The Ministry of Education announced that the southwestern region high schools that are being converted into polytechnic schools are: San Francisco de Asís, in Elias Piña; Mercedes María Mateo, in Las Matas de Farfán; San Andrés and liceo Secundario Vallejuelo, in Vallejuelo, Thomas F. Reilly, San Juan; Pedro Corto and Jinova in the school districts of the same name.
Rafael Ovalles of Infotep explained that the programs to be offered match the characteristics of each center, the teachers and the social economic environment. The Infotep centers have capacity for 1,000 students per shift, 10 workshops and 18 classrooms.
Students will be able to choose from IT studies, marketing, sports training, nursing, health promoters, food industry studies, farm studies, refrigeration and air conditioning specialist, renewable energy, electromechanical studies and woodworking, among others.
13 November 2017
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