INTEC Center for Gender Studies recommends implementing a gender equality policy at all educational levels
SANTO DOMINGO. - The Center for Gender Studies Instituto Tecnológico de Santo Domingo (CEG-INTEC) advocated by design and implementation of a gender equality policy at all levels and educational modalities en Dominican Republic.
In a press conference held for the commemoration of the International Women's Day and the INTEC Equality Month, Desiree del Rosario, coordinator of CEG-INTEC, indicated that educational centers have the responsibility to actively contribute to reversing social problems linked to gender inequality.
“The school is a privileged space to build citizenship, contribute to eradicating violence in all its manifestations, preventing early unions and unwanted pregnancy, reversing inequity in the distribution of care and home work, and developing projects of life and professional vocations that are not conditioned by stereotypes”, emphasized the academic.
In the activity, the CEG coordinator; the vice-rector for Administration and Finance of INTEC, Alliet Ortega; the dean of the Area of Social Sciences and Humanities, Dalul Ordehi, as well as a team of teachers, presented the document: "Educating for Equality in the Dominican Republic: Challenges and proposals", in which they offered 11 recommendations to help the State fulfill its commitment to promote equality in education.
The academics recommended that the policy take into account the mechanisms to guarantee access and permanence in the school system, the development of skills without any type of discrimination and the strengthening of gender equality as a transversal axis in the educational curriculum.
Ordehi regretted that, despite the fact that women lead the enrollment in the primary, secondary and university educational levels, the concept that mathematics and hard sciences are exclusive to the male gender is still handled. “We must encourage and promote the development of skills in the hard sciences and in non-traditional higher education careers that allow this change and this rupture of the traditional role of girls, adolescents and women that make them continue in this vicious circle of poverty, inequality, low wages and more work for less remuneration”.
They called to make effective the processes of interaction of the different regulations that regulate education in the country: the Strategic Plan of the Ministry of Education (MINERD), the educational curriculum with the National Development Strategy 2030 (END 2030) and the PNational Gender Equality and Equity lan (PLANEG III).
Another of the recommendations expressed is to guarantee the transversality of the gender and human rights approach in the educational curriculum that aims at the development of citizen skills that contribute to the eradication of discrimination and gender-based violence.
The CEG-INTEC asked the government to assume the gender approach and education for equality as a transversal axis in the initial and continuous training of all teachers, as well as management personnel and all system servers, with the articulation of the Institute Superior Teacher Training Salomé Ureña (ISFODOSU) and the National Institute for Teacher Education and Training (INAFOCAM).
INTEC will dedicate all the month of March to promotion of gender equality, by holding various academic activities with special guests. As part of the programming of the Equality Month at INTEC The following activities will be developed, among others: the panel "Challenges of Dominican Women in film and communication"; the putting into circulation Book Triggering Looks volume VI; panel on "Women in the Academy, challenges and opportunities", among other themes and activities.
Likewise, the talk "Masculinities and Gender Equality" is included, given by Carlos Campillo Chalas, specialist and consultant on Equality and Inclusion Policies, in which the participating students and collaborators will explore social prejudices about the roles of men and women in Dominican society, as well as basic concepts associated with the sex-gender system; patriarchy; power relations and social imaginary.
Eradicate violence from the classroom
They demand the implementation of comprehensive programs to address, prevent and eradicate school violence, in all its manifestations, from a gender and human rights perspective.
They recommended that educational centers develop active efforts to eliminate discriminatory practices and attitudes that hinder the full development of individual capacities, so that they contribute to the empowerment of women and the unlearning of violence.
“It also implies the active rejection of all forms of violence, discrimination and sexist practices, and the constitution of educational centers as safe spaces for all students. Likewise, it requires a better articulation between the educational system and the health and justice systems, in order to protect children and adolescents in an integral manner”, said Del Rosario.
They urged the implementation of comprehensive socio-emotional and affective-sexual education programs that contribute to the prevention of violence, early unions and adolescent pregnancies; since the student body has tools that allow them to peacefully resolve conflicts and act assertively in situations of violence and harassment.
In fact, they recommended taking into account and involving families and communities in raising awareness and training on issues such as human rights and equality, upbringing and positive discipline, and prevention of child abuse.
STEM and Research
The Center for Gender Studies recommended offering a quality STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) education to students, through the development of programs, in coordination with other instances, that promote the inclusion and permanence of women in scientific and technological areas.
In this sense, Alliet Ortega, Vice Chancellor for Administration and Finance at INTEC, highlighted that women represent 51% of university enrollment nationwide, while at INTEC it is 54%. “We have biases from STEM and engineering careers, in which barely 26% are women, but we have committed to promoting a gender policy in STEM careers, that will be the great contribution that we will make as a university,” she said.
In the document presented, they also demanded to strengthen the role of research in the design of public policies and incorporate the gender approach as a transversal axis, and a line of research in itself, in the studies carried out by the Dominican Institute for Evaluation and Research. of Educational Quality (IDEICE).
In the activity, they specified that the Dominican Republic has a state commitment to promoting equality in education, in order to ensure the right of all students to a quality education without gender discrimination, both in initial, primary and secondary education. , as in higher education and professional technical education.
CEG-INTEC, its contributions to an equality policy
Desiree del Rosario specified that INTEC, through the CEG, has contributed to the achievement of an equality policy in education through training programs such as the Master's degree and the specialty in Gender and Equality Policies in Education, which already has four rounds; the Master's Degree in Gender and Development, started in 1993 with a seven-round graduation; the specialty in Comprehensive Approach to Violence against Women and the Diploma in Gender, Education and Development, which has been taught in 17 education regions.
Likewise, in the field of research they have analyzed the “Gender biases in pre-university education and proposals for coeducation (2020); also comprehensive sexuality education at the pre-university level; the imaginaries about violence against women and child abuse in the school context (2021); “My little school without violence. Recreational teaching program aimed at the second cycle of the primary level”, among others.
Among the publications of the CEG on the subject are "Document of Analysis of the State of Education of the Dominican Republic 2013 from a gender perspective", put into circulation on March 8, 2014; four modules on gender, education and development and "Educating for equality" resulting from the VIII Dominican Conference on Gender Studies.