Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Santo Domingo (Agenzia Fides) - The Dominican Republic’s Bishops’ Conference issued a statement on some of their observations regarding the 10-Year Plan for Education 2008 that was presented on April 29 of this year. According to the Bishops, “the ten main policies that form this 10-Year Plan respond to the needs of our country and our students and are geared towards the quest for a quality education.” For this reason, they value the initiative and they also hope that the plan “may be an opportunity to overcome the delays and limitations that we still have in the area of education, as well as offer the possibility for all citizens to have access to a quality education.”
The Bishops express their desire that this new 10-Year Plan “truly grant men and women a solid human and integral formation, that allows them to obtain knowledge of science and technology , as well as the practice and living of a series of values that make them free, reflective, firm, just, and sensible in responding to the social situation.”
They consider it a positive note that “the plan is based on a series of values that relate to the moral and ethical aspect of the person,” as the purpose of education is to form the person. However, they also request that “Christian values that are taught are also shown on a practical and concrete level in the curricular planning” and that “Christian values that are characteristic of the Dominican Republic’s society along with ethic and moral values may permeate every perspective and activity in the plan.”
They also hope that there can be “Schools for Parents, in which they can participate in the different activities and that the Secretariate can count on the teachers and orientation leaders who can guide this process.”
Another aspect that the Bishops consider positive is the consolidation of the teaching of information technology and communications media. In this sense, they hope that “they may count on an adequate infrastructure, with a good management...that guarantees the equal opportunity for all students of the Dominican Republic.”
“We are aware,” the Bishops say, “that education is a continuous commitment, long and costly, with a great need for many resources; but this is what makes it necessary and urgent that the right quantity established in the General Education Law be provided,” as “Education should be an authentic policy of the government.” For this reason, it is important “that the necessary resources are distributed, that this 10-Year Plan may reach beyond the present government and be identified by the entire society as such.”
“The Church is willing, as it has done in the past, to support and co-operate via its various educational institutions, in this new 10-Year Plan for Education 2008-2018 and thus, contribute to the process of the establishment of a quality education, based on genuine human values, for the entire nation of the Dominican Republic. (RG) (Agenzia Fides 14/5/2008; righe 35, parole 482)
