LEARNING FOR THE CHALLENGES OF REAL LIFE
Santo Domingo, June 8, 2005

Professor Jaume Sarramona, from the Autonomous University of Barcelona, talked about the challenges and responsibilities the school has to face in preparing citizens for the new millennium.

Jaume Sarramona, invited by Global Foundation for Democracy and Development to the Dominican Republic, made a presentation at the PUCMM (Pontifical University Mother and Teacher) gathering a large group of experts, researchers and representatives from different educational associations, like EDUCA, FLACSO, Poveda Center, Foundation Fe y Alegria, brought together under the umbrella of the Socio-Educational Forum.

With this invitation, FUNGLODE's Center for Educational Studies intends to bring up the debate among basic and higher education officers, teachers and administrators, private sector and civil society on the challenges posed to the school by a never ending stream of easy-access information and the unavoidable demand for better standards and higher quality in education.

Professor Sarramona identified the types of challenges our society had to face until recently and the changes that have taken place in our ways of life, how the background of our children differs from the previous generations and how a new set of expectations lies before us. In this sense, Professor Sarramona advocated for the adoption of evaluation processes in education, mainly those based on competencies rather than continuing with the existing paradigms in which our curricula are established.