USAID and World Bank Conclude Course on Evaluation and Monitoring of Learning in the Dominican Republic

12 April 2002

USAID and World Bank Conclude Course on Evaluation and Monitoring of Learning in the Dominican Republic

SANTO DOMINGO - The Chargé d´Affaires of the United States Embassy, Janice L. Jacobs, in a speech given during the closing ceremony on the course on Evaluation and Monitoring of Learning in the Dominican Republic, stated that there is widespread interest in “improving the Dominican educational system,” and at the same time declared that it fills her with optimism “to see the effort made by the Secretariat of State of Education in collaborating with international agencies to improve the Dominican educational system. It also fills us with hope to see the response of the organized civil society to the needs of the system.”

The course, inaugurated last Tuesday, April 9 was sponsored by the World Bank Institute, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and the Program for Educational Reform for Latin America and the Caribbean (PREAL). This course was organized by Acción para la Educación Básica, Inc. (EDUCA).

In her remarks, Mrs. Jacobs explained that “Dominican education seeks to achieve total coverage for the school age population, but this goal must be accompanied by ever increasing levels of quality.”

Also, she stated that “The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has been offering particular assistance to the Secretariat of Education to focus on the area of technical specialization of evaluation. Fortunately this is a specialty where the cooperation between State and civil society can bear great fruit.”

The course was intended to offer a solid conceptual framework for the analysis of educational reforms, centered on results obtained through work in the classroom. Also to train educators in the management of evaluation indicators which will permit decision making in matters of educational policy.

The course was attended basically by personnel responsible for decision-making in the national educational system, technical personnel from the Secretariat of State for Education, university professors, teachers from public and private educational centers and non-governmental organizations interested in the subject.

The main speaker was Dr. Gilbert Valverde, a specialist in the area of evaluation from New York State University – Albany, Dr. Miriam Waiser from the World Bank Institute, and Dr. Mónica González, a specialist in the area of information systems from Argentina.