Dominican taxpayers have fit the bill for 10 years of wasteful spending at the Ministry of Education. When then President Danilo Medina won the Presidency in 2012, the country began to apply the law that stipulated that 4% of GDP should go to public education. After 10 years of massive spending, the Dominican Republic has had very few advances in the quality of graduates and little to show for trillions spend on public education.
The newly appointed Minister of Education Angel Hernandez, on his first week on the job, blasted that there were 265,000 persons employed in the Ministry of Education of which less than half were teachers,
Now, Minister of Hacienda (Finance) Jochi Vicente says that what is important is not total spending, but quality spending. The Ministry of Hacienda has requested a cut of RD$4 billion to the budget allocation of the Ministry of Education this year. This has opened up a major debate.
Vicente, together with the Economy Minister Pavel Isa Contreras and the director of the National Budget Office, José Rijo Presbot visited with the Chamber of Deputies committee that is studying the Reformulated Budget Bill for 2022. The bill adjusts spending allotments to accommodate the deficit caused by the Abinader administration decision to absorb the increases in fuel costs to control inflation.
Vicente says the requested budget reallotments are for close to RD$14 billion in different institutions, including Hacienda itself.
“What we are doing is redirecting those resources that are not going to be executed, instead of executing them badly in an institution, be it Education, Hacienda, Energy and Mines or whatever,” explained Vicente.
Vicente said the 4 billion pesos that the government proposes to reduce from the Ministry of Education correspond to projects that are currently included in the Education budget, but that will not be able to be executed this year. President Luis Abinader removed Roberto Furcal from the position of Minister of Education. Furcal was constantly in the media for irregularities in government procurement and decisions that have proven to be contrary to quality education.
“About 80% of the expenses that are being incorporated in this reformulation are expenses to address the situation that has arisen from the war conflict between Russia and Ukraine, which as you know has had a very significant impact on inflation, fuel prices and gas prices,” Hacienda Minister Vicente argues.
The debate is on. Deputy Gaddis Corporán considers the money is needed to finish schools under construction and to fund meals for students.
Meanwhile, new Minister of Education Angel Hernandez has named a committee to update to the times the General Education Law 66-97 that dates back to 1997. Former deputy rector at the PUCMM university, Radhames Mejía has been named to head the new committee. Other members are former ministers of Education Jacqueline Malagón, Ligia Amada Melo, as well as Franklin García Fermín, Minister of Higher Education; Olga Espaillat, of Private Educational Institutions; and Eduardo Hidalgo, president of the Dominican Association of Teachers (ADP).
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El Caribe
6 September 2022