Prospects of an agreement on a salary increase for public school teachers seem to be ever more distant due to the tougher stances being adopted by the government and the Dominican Teachers Association (ADP). In a paid press notice published today, Monday 4 March, the government reiterates that the general increase that will be applied is for 20% and has been in effect since last 1 February. However, ADP president Eduardo Hidalgo said last night, Sunday 3 March, that in the face of the government media onslaught, the national plenary meeting of teachers delegates called for tomorrow, Tuesday 5 March could approve a much larger scale strike and an increase in teachers demonstrations. He described the figures presented by the government outlining the expense involved in a salary increase as “false,” and called on the government to stop spending Ministry of Education funds on these paid announcements in the newspapers.
The document, paid for by the Ministry of Education, says that the 100% pay increase that the ADP is demanding “is not economically possible or feasible, because it would absorb nearly 50% of the budget increase for Education.” They argued that complying with the teachers’ demands would sacrifice the construction of 10,000 new classrooms and put a halt to the acquisition of new school desks. The government has published full-page ads in newspapers depicting newspaper clippings talking about a lack of sensitivity (on the part of the ADP) to seek a salary increase at the expense of the funds from the 4% of the Gross Domestic Product.