The 1996-97 school year began under difficult conditions in the public system. According to the newspaper Hoy, there is a shortage of 150,000 desks and 2,500 classrooms in the public schools throughout the nation. The general secretary of the Asociación Dominicana de Profesores, Melanio Paredes, warned that the lack of student desks could not be overcome for at least a year due to the limited capacity of the factories that produce them in the D.R., leading some to speculate that for 1996-97 they would have to be imported.
The Minister of Education, Lidia Amada Melo de Cardona, has suggested the renting of private premises to hold classes in view of the shortage of 2,500 classrooms. The Ministry of Education, however, is currently in debt to the private sector precisely for non-payment of rents for such premises. The repair of approximately 2000 classrooms has been announced by the government, but is is not known how long they will take.