The Education Minister has opened an investigation into teachers who collect a salary without working. Milagros Ortiz Bosch said it is probable that many teachers are taking the salaries of those who are working and not being paid. So far, Education Department staff have found only five incidents of this and they are at the Socorro Sánchez School in Villa Duarte. Ortiz Bosch said in El Siglo that the study will also determine how many students there are per teacher in the classrooms. She assured the media that her department will work together with the teachers to get to the bottom of the problem because “I don’t believe there is any reason to have so many teachers in the schools… I don’t believe 11,000 teachers have been appointed to their positions. I have to establish responsibility at this level.” Meanwhile, teachers in Santo Domingo and Santiago are preparing to go on strike Thursday if the authorities don’t give them the back pay they say is due to more than 700 teachers, some of whom claim not to have been paid in up to 12 months.
