INTEC expert urges analysis and updating of curricula to address challenges in the Dominican education system
The educator and psychologist Julio Leonardo Valeirón addressed the topic during the closing ceremony of the Diploma in Curriculum Evaluation taught by the Instituto Tecnológico de Santo Domingo (INTEC) and the National Institute for Teacher Training and Development (INAFOCAM)
HOLY SUNDAY. - Julio Leonardo Valeirón, doctor in Education and coordinator of the Psychosocial Care Center of the Instituto Tecnológico de Santo Domingo (INTEC) highlighted the need to analyze and update curricula to meet the current and future challenges of the Dominican education system.
In delivering the keynote address “Evaluating to advance, the strategic role of the teaching technician”, during the closing ceremony of the Diploma in Curriculum Evaluation taught by the Instituto Tecnológico de Santo Domingo (INTEC) and the National Institute for Teacher Training and Development (INAFOCAM), highlighted that “for a curriculum evaluation to fulfill its objective it must be guided and organized in three aspects: Relevance, coherence, and impact, where it is necessary to analyze whether there is a correlation between what is to be taught and what the student ends up learning, and how the curriculum responds to the social and cultural environment of the country where we live.”
Valeiron, who has over 40 years of experience as an educator, having held positions such as Director of National Tests at the Ministry of Education and Executive Director of the Dominican Institute for Evaluation and Research of Educational Quality (Ideice), urged evaluators to ask themselves the following questions: Does the curriculum respond to current social, cultural, and technological needs, and of course, to those of the students? Is it useful for their lives? Is there a relationship between objectives, content, pedagogical strategies, and evaluation?
Along the same lines, he clarified that evaluation is not an end in itself, but rather the mechanism for fulfilling a national promise. "The Constitution and the Education Law promise it; the curriculum is designed to make this possible. And what is it about? It's about an education in which all children and adolescents learn and develop their skills according to their own interests and those of society," the teacher stated.
Commitment to continuous improvement
During the event, the Dean of the Area of Social Sciences and Humanities, Dalul Ordehi, reaffirmed the commitment to quality and continuous improvement in Dominican education through the strategic alliance between both institutions: "We celebrate the result of collective effort and critical reflection. This program is committed to strengthening the technical team in charge of the country's most important human capital: our teachers," Ordehi emphasized in his speech.
Furthermore, INAFOCAM's Executive Director, Siullin Joa, highlighted the importance of this diploma program, as its participants will be able to more thoroughly determine the projects and programs offered through tenders and thus align the academic aspect with the requirements of the Public Procurement Law.
“This diploma program will allow our staff to evaluate the training proposals submitted by institutions with greater technical rigor. They will now be able to develop the necessary technical specifications for bidding processes based on a solid foundation of curriculum knowledge,” the official stated.
Closing the event
The event concluded with recognition of the 34 employees from different departments of the public institution who completed this 90-hour program. They graduated with the goal of strengthening the professional skills of teachers and educational technicians to design, implement, and evaluate relevant and contextualized curriculum assessment processes, in accordance with the competency-based approach of the national curriculum. They concluded that educational excellence is a continuous process that requires constant updating in the face of existing and future challenges to the Dominican educational system.