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More than 200 Dominican Teachers Received Diplomas of Certification

April 27, 2006

On April 27, 2006, on an event celebrated at FUNGLODE’s headquarters in Santo Domingo, more than 200 Dominican Teachers received Diplomas of Certification for the online training they recently completed on "Quality of Basic Education". Mr. Paul Goris, Education and Technology Coordinator of FUNGLODE, Asunción Sanz, Project Coordinator for GFDD, and Cristian Matías, Director for Education and Technology, the
Ministry of Education of Dominican Republic (SEE), lead the ceremony in which these teachers’ achievement was recognized.

The online training course is one of the successful efforts of the Educational Portal of the
Americas, the Organization of American States (OAS), the Institute of Advanced Studies for the Americas (INEAM), Fundación Global Democracia y Desarrollo (FUNGLODE) from the Dominican Republic and its sister institution in the U.S., Global Foundation for Democracy and Development (GFDD), with the support of the Secretary of Education (SEE) and the Secretary of
Higher Education, Science and Technology (SEESCYT) of the Dominican Republic, to increase the quality of the education system through in-service teacher training.

This online training program offers an introduction to the philosophy of quality education. It is directed to primary and secondary level teachers in private or public sector as well as to professors of education in higher education and
experts in teacher training. The course is dictated entirely online and it requires from participants a commitment of at least 10 hours per week. At the conclusion of the course participants have acquired knowledge of the conceptual and methodological tools necessary to improve basic educational services, as well as the ability to apply their newfound knowledge and cognitive skills to their institutional settings.

During the
event, the teachers expressed their satisfaction with this training and praised the fact that a second edition for another 200 teachers is already taking place. Teachers also gave testimony of their experience, how this training was also a vehicle to expose participants to the use of a computer, to navigate in Internet and to work other technological resources. An added result of the course was the motivation teachers found in getting together, in sharing and overcoming the challenges and
difficulties of this new experience to many of them.

GFDD/FUNGLODE is very enthusiastic with the results of the experience and is already working with the Educational Portal of the Americas and both Secretaries of Education in the Dominican Republic, to develop a training of trainers course for those most advanced
participants, with the purpose of leaving installed capacity in the country and making this training available to all in-service teachers.