The Ministry of Education confirms it will pay private schools a US$500 bonus for registering students that have not found places in public schools. Education Minister Angel Hernandez says the cost is much less than the US$1,800 per student cost of students in the public system. He said the program seeks to place 136,000 students in private schools of the around 150,000 that have been left out of public schools.
The public school system in the Dominican Republic reopens on 19 September 2022. Private schools mostly opened in the second half of August and early September.
“There have been some limitations that were not really foreseen (…), there are many children seeking enrollment in public schools because many private schools closed,” Hernandez explained during a meeting with the press.
He said the increase in demand in city schools is a consequence of the internal migration that occurs in the country, when people relocate to places where there is greater economic development.
He mentioned what is happening in Higüey, where there are 8,000 children without places in schools due to the number of individuals who moved to the area in search of work in the tourist zone.
He declared that the same thing is happening in the City of Juan Bosch, a housing complex where 20,000 people were expected to live and where there are more than 30,000 now, with only four schools with capacity for 5,000 students.
Hernández said the students registered in the programs at the private schools will receive extra funding for books and uniforms. Meal programs are also being arranged. “The schools are all willing to collaborate so that the floating population can be absorbed,” he shared with the press.
Hernandez said that the Ministry is also working to rent spaces to open schools in cities with strong demand, namely Greater Santo Domingo, San Cristobal, Higüey and Santiago. He said that last year the institution rented some 80 premises, which were added to 200 that had been previously rented.
He also pointed out that the 718 schools that, according to Fernando Taveras, general director of School Infrastructure, the past government left unfinished throughout the national territory are in the process of being built.
“We found them under a scheme of illegality that could not be covered, much less paid for (…), schools without plots of land, with structural deficiencies and poorly located,” said the engineering professional.
He informed that to date 20 have been completed and 164 are in the execution phase, so that 65 will be delivered by the end of the year.
He pointed out that they are also working on the expansion and renewal of old schools.
Minister Angel Hernandez informed that the more than 4 billion pesos that the government intended to take away from the Ministry of Education to transfer them to other institutions due to the lack of execution will now be used in the refurbishment of the educational centers, for the bonds for the enrollment of students in private schools and to benefit at least 1,000 teachers with a new housing program, Mi Vivienda Feliz (My Happy Home).
The Ministry of Education informed that they are working on hiring new teachers to cover the demand.
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El Caribe
15 September 2022