80,000 Dominican teachers ‘poorly trained’

Santo Domingo.- The rector of the Open University forAdults, UAPA, Dr. Ángel Hernández, says that 80,000 teachers in the DominicanRepublic are ‘poorly trained’ and that this is the main reason why thecountry’s education ranking is one of the lowest in Latin America.

“If we don’t have well-trained teachers, it’simpossible to have good students,” stressed the UAPA rector, during atelevision interview.

Dr. Hernández called on the higher educationinstitutions to train specialized teachers.

The UAPA rector deplored that the main topic of debatein the country was the high cost of textbooks, saying there are other issuesthat are much more important. “The problem is not that a book is expensive, butthe fact that the book being used for teaching Dominican children is out ofdate and without any regulation, every school chooses the one it likes the lookof best and that’s where the price difference is reflected,” he said.

He declared that education in the country should beassessed on results and that it is impossible to see good results when thenational educational curriculum has not been updated since 1995. Hernández concludedby saying that taking into consideration that we are in the era of educationaldemocracy, which demands higher quality and competitiveness, the curriculum’s reformulationshould be imminent.