WILLEMSTAD - From the year 2020 until the end of 2021, the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture, and Sports (OWCS) made necessary preparations for the Digitalization in Education Curaçao (DOC) program. These preparations included identifying key stakeholders to garner sufficient support, defining roles and responsibilities of involved parties, securing the required financial resources, and developing a vision for the DOC program. The guiding principle was that "Every child, youth, and adult in Curaçao has equal access to quality education and educational facilities to fully and holistically develop."
To achieve this, the ministry needs to establish a data-driven, digital, and integrated approach. Additionally, digitalization in education necessitates broad, integrated, and thoughtful collaboration among all stakeholders, including school boards, parents, educational organizations, businesses, and the government.
In the year 2021, phase 1 of the DOC program was launched. However, the available funds proved to be insufficient to complete all the activities within this phase adequately. Since then, the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture, and Sports (OWCS) has been searching for possible sources of funding. For the continuity of the DOC program, it is crucial that the financial resources for the program are made available in a sustainable and structural manner. In this context, on July 3rd, a presentation was given to State Secretary of the Interior and Kingdom Relations, Ms. Alexandra van Huffelen, about the progress of implementing five policy domains resulting from the recommendations of the report "Nulmeting" (Baseline Measurement) and the DOC Action Plan.
As a result of this presentation, State Secretary van Huffelen pointed out the possibilities of financing from European funds or the National Growth Fund (NGF) of the Netherlands. Especially, the NGF will only be made available to the countries Aruba, Curaçao, and Sint Maarten once the implementation modalities are further developed. In connection with this, the Minister of OWCS recently decided to present the DOC program to the Council of Ministers for inclusion on the implementation agenda for the fourth quarter of this year. Once the NGF funds are made accessible for the countries, a funding request will be submitted to the NGF, either independently or in combination with the other Caribbean countries within the Kingdom.