Executive Decree PCM-132-2020 creating the National Program for Digital Educational Transformation
Poder Ejecutivo
- Decree: PCM-132-2020
- Published: January 12, 2021
- Issuing body: Poder Ejecutivo
- Gazette: 35,485
- Category: Administrative
Summary
This law creates the National Program for Digital Educational Transformation to improve education in Honduras through technology, connectivity, and pedagogical innovation. It benefits primary and secondary school students by providing electronic devices, internet access, and virtual learning platforms. The program will be coordinated by multiple government institutions and funded with international resources.
Considerations
Whereas the human person is the supreme end of society and the State. All have the obligation to respect and protect it. The dignity of the human being is inviolable.
Whereas guaranteeing the dignity of the human person is the supreme end of society and the State, with access to quality and relevant education being a basic right to achieve it.
Whereas the Constitution of the Republic in its Article 151 establishes that: Education is an essential function of the State for the conservation, promotion and dissemination of culture, which must extend its benefits to society without discrimination of any nature.
Whereas in accordance with Article 245, numerals 2, 11 and 28 of the Constitution of the Republic, the President of the Republic is responsible for the General Administration of the State, among whose other attributes are: To direct the general policy of the State and represent it; to issue Agreements, Decrees and to issue Regulations and Resolutions in accordance with the Law; to organize, direct, guide and promote public education, eradicate illiteracy, disseminate and improve technical education.
Whereas in accordance with Article 11 of the General Public Administration Law, the President of the Republic has charge of the supreme direction and coordination of the Centralized and Decentralized Public Administration. The President of the Republic in the exercise of his functions may act by himself or in Council of Ministers.
Whereas through Legislative Decree 262-2011, containing the Fundamental Law of Education, published in the Official Gazette "La Gaceta" on February 22, 2012, Edition No. 32,754, it ratifies its commitment regarding Equitable and Inclusive Education, recognizing this as a principle of the National Education System, ensuring equal opportunities of access to education without any discrimination and addressing special educational needs, cultural, linguistic, social and individual diversity as central elements in development.
Whereas through Legislative Decree No. 286-2009, the Law for the Establishment of a Country Vision and the Adoption of a Plan of Nation for Honduras was approved, an instrument that defined that by the year 2038, "Honduras will have an efficient educational system, generator of competencies, capable of promoting sustainable processes of social emancipation and where the flexibility and adaptation of curricular bases at all levels, will allow Hondurans to deploy all the potential of material, cultural and spiritual development. The new educational system will ensure that all Honduran men and women can access optimal levels of individual and social well-being".
Whereas the governing, regulatory body responsible for the matter of transformation of the Honduran educational system is the Ministry of Education (SEDUC), as well as to develop in a decentralized manner, a national system of educational information, quantitative and qualitative, generated by its own authorities as a process at the municipal, district, departmental and national levels.
Whereas the National Telecommunications Commission (CONATEL) was created through Legislative Decree 185-95, as an advisory, coordinating and executing body of telecommunications policy.
Whereas the General Coordination Office of Government (SCGG), created under Legislative Decree 266-2013, has among its powers the analysis, proposal and execution of plans for the modernization and reform of the State and the coordination of public administration as the technical arm of the President of the Republic.
Whereas through Executive Decree PCM-004-2020, published in the Official Gazette "La Gaceta" on February 6, 2020, the Strategic Agency for Productive, Environmental and Social Projects of Honduras (AEPAS-H) is created, attached to the General Coordination Office of Government (SCGG), as responsible for the design, execution, supervision and administration of social projects assigned to it, as a result of international financing agreements, and in its Article 24, subsections a) and e), it is named executor of the Projects for Improvement of Educational Quality and Development of Capacities for Employability: Young People Program (HO-L1188) and Digital Transformation for Greater Competitiveness (HO-L1202).
Whereas any educational development strategy must take into account the use of information and communication technologies as agile mechanisms that accelerate learning, which must be accessible to all students regardless of their in-person or distance modality and that access to the internet has been declared by the United Nations as a human right through Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Whereas the Strategic Plan of the Educational Sector 2018-2030 establishes that by the year 2030, Honduras will ensure that all students of the National Education System achieve fundamental learning and competencies for life in society and employability, thereby contributing to national development; this through permanent curricular updating, trained teaching professionals for ensuring effective and innovative pedagogical processes, policies of supervision and support to educational centers, continuous evaluation of educational quality and equity, and the strengthening of innovation and development capacities of the National Education System, transforming teaching methodologies as a result of a new model of teacher training, which allows the stimulation of creativity, entrepreneurship, scientific research and innovation.
Whereas, in order to generate a successful transformation of Education in Honduras, with a greater focus on equity and integrating the use of information technologies as an accelerator of learning, a specialized institution is required, articulated and properly aligned to serve the Educational System that promotes educational innovation. This transformation necessarily involves improving connectivity, use of technological devices, innovative educational platforms, teacher training, new pedagogies and a new institutional design where education is recognized as a multisectoral responsibility.
Articles
The National Program for Digital Educational Transformation is hereby created, attached to the Secretariat of General Coordination of Government, as a strategy that contributes to the achievement of learning and fundamental competencies for life in society and employability, thereby contributing to national development.
The Objectives of the National Program for Digital Educational Transformation are the following:
- 1)
To contribute to the exercise of the right to formal education at the Pre-basic, Basic and Secondary levels and to social inclusion through actions that permit equal access to knowledge and the healthy development of children and adolescents;
- 2)
To cooperate and coordinate, as it deems necessary, with the different institutions linked to educational and technical matters, including the Secretariat of State in the Office of Education as the governing and regulatory body, the National Council of Education, the National Telecommunications Commission, Cooperating Agencies and Foundations among others;
- 3)
To provide support in the supply of electronic devices for focused educational centers and ensure they have the technical support and required maintenance;
- 4)
To promote the use of Virtual Educational Learning Platforms, aimed at facilitating the acquisition of knowledge in disciplines key to life;
- 5)
To contribute to the reduction of the digital divide through Connectivity of Educational Centers nationwide in coordination with relevant actors;
- 6)
To promote new pedagogies that improve creativity, communication, collaboration, critical thinking, character and citizenship among others, all of them developed on the basis of projects and in line with active learning methodologies; and, 7. To contribute to strengthening the capacity of teachers in new methodologies that incorporate training in Twenty-first Century skills, in coordination with the Secretariat of State in the Office of Education.
The Technical Directing Team of the National Program for Digital Educational Transformation is hereby created to coordinate and implement in an articulated manner with the corresponding Government bodies and other relevant actors the National Program for Digital Educational Transformation.
The Governing Board of the National Program for Digital Educational Transformation is hereby created, charged with coordinating at the strategic level and shall have the following objectives:
- 1)
To approve the Operational Plan of the National Program for Digital Educational Transformation;
- 2)
To cooperate and coordinate, as it deems necessary, with the different institutions linked to educational and technical matters;
- 3)
To receive the Monitoring and Evaluation reports presented by the General Manager and to pronounce on them;
- 4)
To inform the President of the Republic and relevant actors of all information that is considered of vital importance for the achievement of the Program's objectives;
- 5)
To appoint the General Manager of the directing team; and, 6. To approve the budget of the Program that shall be presented by the General Manager who shall chair the directing team.
The Governing Board of the National Program for Digital Educational Transformation shall be composed in the following manner:
- 1)
The Secretary of State in the Office of Education, who presides over it;
- 2)
The Secretary of State in the Office of General Coordination of Government;
- 3)
The Secretary of State in the Office of Development and Social Inclusion;
- 4)
The Secretary of State in the Office of Management and Public Innovation;
- 5)
The President Commissioner of the National Telecommunications Commission (CONATEL);
- 6)
The Director of the Strategic Agency for Productive, Environmental and Social Projects (AEPAS-H);
- 7)
A representative of the National Council of Education; and, 8. A Representative of Civil Society preferably linked to the Digital Education Sector.
The National Program for Digital Educational Transformation must present to the Governing Board of the Program within a period not to exceed ten (10) days the Operating Regulations for its approval, once this Executive Decree is published.
The monitoring and evaluation of the National Program for Digital Educational Transformation shall be the responsibility of the Directing Team, who shall present periodic reports to the Governing Board, which shall report quarterly to the President of the Republic on the advances in its implementation, as well as on its results and impacts.
The National Program for Digital Educational Transformation. To each of the execution plans and budgets of the projects whose financial resources shall fund its implementation, those expenses found in the Plan and Budget of the Program duly approved by the Governing Board shall be incorporated. The funds for the implementation of the Program shall come from the following Programs and Projects:
- 1)
Improvement of Educational Quality for the Development of Skills for Employment: Young Project (HO-L1188);
- 2)
Digital Transformation for Greater Competitiveness (HO-L1202);
- 3)
National Broadband Plan, through the Investment Fund in Telecommunications, Information Technologies and Communications (FITT); and, 4. Other funds that may be identified and prioritized in the future. In accordance with the foregoing, the Program shall establish the respective Agreements with each of the entities responsible for the administration of the projects previously numbered. The personnel required for the implementation of the National Program for Digital Educational Transformation shall be technical counterparts hired by the projects described above, respecting the hiring policies of the financing entity.
This Decree enters into force on the day of its publication in the Official Gazette of the Republic "La Gaceta". Given at Presidential House in the city of Tegucigalpa, Municipality of the Central District, on the sixteenth (16) day of the month of December of the year two thousand twenty (2020). LET IT BE COMMUNICATED AND PUBLISHED.
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- Decreto Ejecutivo No. PCM-132-2020 — Programa Nacional de Transformación Educativa Digital (Decree PCM-132-2020, 2021)
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