February 8, 2010 – Miami, Florida, United States…[Libna Stevens/IAD]
Dozens of educators and administrators throughout the Adventist educational system in Inter-America met late last month to discuss and fine tune strategies that will change the course of education in the territory in the coming years.
The meeting gathered educators from the three levels of education, elementary, secondary and university, in what top church administrators called the third step in a four-phase process of planning and review before its vote and launch.
“This is a historic process,” said Dr. Moises Velazquez, education director for the church in Inter-America of the two-day educational summit held Jan. 26-27. “Never had the educational system of the Adventist Church in Inter-America incorporated from the bottom to the top of its [educational] system to strategize together for a new educational strategy.”
The education strategy was designed and presented to church leaders last November at the recent Inter-American Division Executive Committee meetings. Sub-committees met for two days to focus on specific areas for review of the three levels of IAD’s educational system, explained Dr. Velazquez.
Among the issues studied were the logistics of offering financial assistance to students at all Adventist schools while offering low interest loans to university students, establishing a state-of-the-art classroom for online teaching in each of the 12 universities in the territory, and expanding the use of the virtual library. They also explored extended supervision of the undergraduate training of pastors by the Inter-American Theological Seminary, better pay for teachers and additional informal educational options for laypeople and church members in general, among others.
Pastor Israel Leito, president of the church in Inter-America, who has been at the forefront of the educational strategy, said that the recent meetings were to crystallize the plans that needed to be tested and find out where the church wants to go with these plans.
“Now that we have gone through this preliminary stage which was reviewed and accepted by the participants necessary to make the decisions, it encourages us to move ahead and formulate more complete plans for the final phase before committee approval,” Pastor Leito said.
Church leaders will meet early in May to finalize education strategy in the territory before final vote is taken by IAD executive committee members later in May.
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