Education Minister Angel Hernandez said on 12 September 2022 that parents of students who cannot find places in public schools can request a voucher valid for registration in a private school. The government is also immersed in a program to rent classroom space to give time to finish public schools that are under construction.
Of 718 public schools received under construction from the past Medina administration that have not been completed in the two years of the Abinader administration mostly because of legal irregularities. In several cases, the constructions were awarded to contractors that did not have even the lot where the school would be built.
The motion to issue vouchers for parents to choose alternate private schools would also strengthen the private school system that has been hurting because government schools are paying teachers more and recruiting the better teachers from the private schools. Students in public schools get meals and free computers, making them more attractive for many parents. Also on the plus side is that the private schools are not under the heavy influence of politics as are the public schools.
Angel Hernandez said that the Ministry of Education has identified that private schools have space for around 136,000 students. The government says it has a deficit of 300,000 classrooms for the 2022-23 school year.
Diario Libre reports the government will distribute vouchers for US$500 or around RD$25,000 to the parents to be used to register their children in private schools.
Hernandez says the deficit of classrooms was also worsened when more than 600 private schools closed after the Ministry of Education under former Minister Roberto Furcal impeded these to reopen from March 2020 to September 2021.
Hernandez spoke during a luncheon President Luis Abinader held with the media before leaving for Washington, D.C. to lobby for international assistance for Haiti this week.
Hernandez said that there are big deficits in public school classrooms in Santiago, La Altagracia, Puerto Plata and San Cristóbal.
Public schools are due to open on 19 September 2022. Most private schools opened in August or at the start of September for the 2022-2023 school year.
Read more in Spanish:
Diario Libre
Diario Libre
El Caribe
Listin Diario
13 September 2022