Education Minister Roberto Furcal authorized school to resume in municipalities where Covid-19 positivity rate is under 5% with strict hygiene protocols. Only early childhood and pre-school level and first-grade children up to 8 years old can return to school. Also, authorized to resume face-to-face learning are vocational school programs but only for the graduating class.
Education Minister Roberto Furcal announced that the National District and the province of Santo Domingo are excluded from the shortlist of municipalities where schools are getting green light to partially resume classes as of 6 April 2021. Schools will be officially only reopening in three provinces.
The Ministry of Education in the Dominican Republic has been very conservative in the return to in-person learning. The reluctance in authorizing in-person learning has met with widespread opposition of parent associations, private schools and pro-education organizations that have lobbied for the return to in-person learning under globally accepted protocols.
The Ministry of Education’s most robust support for continuing the focus on distance learning has come from the Association of Public School Teachers (ADP). Public school teachers and workers all continue to get paid the same, with in-person learning or not.
The general director of Epidemiology at the Ministry of Public Health, Dr. Ronald Skewes said that so far there are 48 municipalities with the 5% positivity rate authorized to prepare the return to classes following hygiene protocols. These are located in Elías Piña, Independencia and Monte Plata provinces.
The rules require that only 50% of the students can be in the classroom simultaneously. The schools need to be inspected by the ministries of Public Health and Education.
By 6 April 2021, it is expected that most public school teachers will be vaccinated. Teachers of 60+ or with comorbidities will continue to be assigned to working with distance learning programs.
Education Minister Roberto Furcal says the Ministry expects to vaccinate 240,822 professors and administrative staff before returning to in-person learning. The vaccination program at present is for those 70+ and teachers and school staff. The Minister says that so far around 11,000 professors have been vaccinated.
The Ministry of Education says the return to classes is voluntary. The children will need to present written permission from their parents.
Darwin Caraballo, executive director for Educa, says it is good news the Ministry of Education is following recommendations for the return to classes in this school year. When interviewed for La Cuestión radio talk show on Friday, 5 March 2021, Caraballo said that the measures are conservative. He said Harvard University scientists say that schools that reopen in areas where positivity is 5% or less can do so without restrictions. All around the world, schools have reopened with protocols in communities where the positivity rate is at 10%. Caraballo was disappointed the Ministry is not authorizing schools to reopen in Greater Santo Domingo nor Santiago.
Former Minister of Public Health, Dr. Plutarco Arias, said schools could reopen when the positivity rate was at 10% or less. Yet this position was not shared by the authorities at the Ministry of Education.
Schools have been closed in the Dominican Republic since 17 March 2021. The Abinader administration has invested billions in distance learning programs and in electronic devices.
Read more in Spanish:
Ministry of Education
Ministry of Education – Return to School Protocol
Ministry of Education press conference
Hoy
N Digital
Diario Libre
8 March 2021