Innovative Educational Strategy Proposed At GFDD and FUNGLODE Film Forum

An interesting new initiative by GFDD and FUNGLODE, a film forum  for "Innovative Education: Proposals concerning the realities of a changing world" began on February 11th at FUNGLODE headquarters in Santo Domingo. The Forum, which took place with the support of the International Advisory Committee on Science and Technology of the Dominican Republic (CIACT), showed a screening of the film "The Forbidden Education."

Senators José Rafael Vargas, Cristina Lizardo, and Teacher Xiomara Lora addressed the need for the Dominican Republic to take on a new system to ensure the comprehensive education of the individuals and their social inclusion, that goes far beyond their academic qualifications.

"The Forbidden Education” is a documentary film that aims to question the logic of modern schooling and how to understand education, making unconventional, different experiences visible, thus raising the need for new paradigms. It is an initiative by young
people who participate in a research project spanning eight countries, where over 90 educators with alternative educational proposals are interviewed.

Senator Vargas, a member of the Education Committee of the Senate of the Dominican Republic, said that, the challenge is to allocate the considerable funding of 4% of GDP  to education, not only to create building facilities, but also to prioritize investment in quality educational resources.

"The problem is where do we invest that 4%, or RD$108 billion? " he said. "we build many classrooms, many buildings, and you go to any province and find 30, 40, 50 new buildings, and we wonder what for?"  the Senator added.

The legislator also asked the questions;  have we changed the education model?;  What is the plan for the teachers?;  What is the new quality scheme for the education environment that we
are building?

"With these unanswered questions", he continued, " later on we will ask ourselves, what did that 4% ever achieve? "

After pointing out that, "we appear not to be asking any of these questions nowadays in the Dominican Republic," he highlighted the value of the GFDD and FUNGLODE initiative launched with the screening of film "The Forbidden Education".

Xiomara Lora, Specialist in Systemic Education, invited the audience to reflect and see the pupil as a whole, as a universe. She said that the most basic way is letting the students teach themselves, and to be open, authentic, capable human beings.

She reaffirmed the role of the family as a key support to the creation of spaces that children in their formative years require in order to acquire knowledge.

The educator referred to what she
considered an effective systemic formula, where three fundamental aspects are valued: family, social, and school systems. She argued that, "With these three parameters, education is guaranteed as an integrated whole. Its essence is to guide and accompany the child."

The Director of the GFDD’s New York office, Yamile Eusebio, moderated the roundtable discussion that followed the presentation of the documentary.

The second
edition of the film forum takes place on Wednesday, February 12th, with the screening of the film "The Finnish Phenomenon: Inside the World’s Most Surprising School System, at 6 pm, in the Auditorium of FUNGLODE.