With the presence of different personalities from our country, the book Sport as a Development Instrument was put into circulation: “Towards a New Educational Model in the XXI Century”, in which, among other visions, the importance of of sport as a science and its direct link with school and public health to promote the advancement of Dominican society.
The launch of the bibliographical work, which is authored by Gilberto Soriano, lawyer and former national fencing team, was attended by former President of the Republic Leonel Fernandez Reina; the senator for the province of Santo Domingo Antonio Taveras Guzmán; the former Vice President of the Dominican Republic Rafael Alburquerque, the former Minister of Education Melanio Paredes; Supreme Court Justice Samuel Arias Arceno and President of the Dominican Sports Hall of Fame Dionisio Guzmán.
To detail the importance of the book, a panel was developed in which the Ombudsman, Pablo Ulloa; the ad vitam president of the Dominican Olympic Committee, neurosurgeon José Joaquin Puello Herrera; the president of the Dominican Newspaper Society, Persio Maldonado Sánchez, and the author of the book, Gilberto Soriano, moderated by Juliana Ramia Capellán, professor and expert in public policy.
This initiative was supported by various entities such as the National Institute of Physical Education (INEFI), the Body Shop Foundation, El Nuevo Diario newspaper, CDN Deportes, the Ombudsman, Show and Event Productions (CTAV), Soriano Abogados y Consultores, among others.
During the debate, the importance of the work was highlighted, highlighting the need to insert sport in educational facilities. Pablo Ulloa congratulated the author for the great contribution made to society through his book, emphasizing that it came at an opportune moment in view of the electoral contest that the country is experiencing in the face of 2024.
“We will have a presidential election in 2024, which should collect this type of analysis in more depth. It must be rethought. What are sports federations? How are these amateur strategies integrated with the professional part so that the school is a look at the citizen that I want to be? This book is a great contribution from the point of view of the bibliography of sport and education in the Dominican Republic so that it has an impact and transcends, and the real value can be seen by proposing successful models as shown in its pages”, said Ulloa.
In the same way, Dr. José Joaquin Puello Herrera expressed that being a book with more than 30 chapters implies effort, sacrifice and dedication, and it is a sign that an exhaustive and investigative work was done, for which he not only congratulated the author , but he emphasized the legacy that he leaves to society for future generations. He specified that sport is a perfect formula to develop a nation.
For his part, Persio Maldonado, agreed with Pablo that this book has come at an opportune moment.
“In its pages, the author raises an issue inherent to the human condition, allows us to reflect on the need for the country to return sport to schools, democracy took sport out of schools and must return it to the educational system. Sport from school generates discipline, courtesy, necessary wealth for the human condition, social control, reduces the evils that affect society. The book forces us to define interconnected public policies between the different ministries to push a country in a better direction”.
For his part, in his speech the author was emphatic stating that the issue of education is not a matter of government, but of the State as a whole.
“The school is an extension of the family, in the learning process not only the teacher should be involved, but also the parents and society. When a child is born the State does not see a gender, it sees a future educator”, she said.