A study by the Dominican Public School Teachers Association (ADP) revealed many issues affecting the quality of public school system. The ADP study findings were presented by Xiomara Guante, the ADP president.
The ADP study pinpoints issues ranging from critical infrastructure, deficient essential services and a lack of books and other educational materials, to hours of students being in an extended recess in schools with the Extended School Day program.
The research by the ADP, carried out through the Public Policy Observatory, focused on issues with the necessary infrastructure, including bathrooms, of which 34% were “deficient” and in 5% of the schools were not even in existence. Classroom ventilation was a problem in 48% of schools that said that they had fans but these needed to be repaired.
In 67% of the schools surveyed, there was no space for serving the school breakfast or lunch.
On average, according to the study, schools spent 2.3 days a week without any water. It reported that power was out during 14% of their class hours at the beginning of the 2019-2020 school year.
In the case of rural schools, waterless days averaged four per week and frequent blackouts affect the development of educational activities.
The study revealed that 50% of the schools do not have a library, 64% had no multi-use room and 74% had no labs. Likewise, it showed that the age-old practice of hiring outside of the competitive process of examinations continues to flourish, with 6% of personnel being hired as “monitors” or “technicians.”
During the second week of classes, there was a 20% deficit in teachers. In some cases, the schools could not open because of a lack of teachers.
Regarding the schools with the Extended Hours Program, some 92% of these schools had not hired teachers for the elective courses that would be offered.
85% of the school children had yet to receive any books or educational materials.
Looking at student welfare programs, the study found that 70% of the public schools had received the food rations. 45% of the students had not received their uniforms two weeks after the start of school.
45% of public schools have no facilities for persons with disabilities.
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Diario Libre
30 September 2019