The Chamber of Deputies Education Commission will meet with the Minister of Education Carlos Amarante Baret to find a definitive solution to the high cost of textbooks, as reported in Diario Libre. The school year began last week so the discussions may be too late to benefit parents this year. The high cost of textbooks affects students attending private schools, because the government gives schoolbooks to public school students.
After the resolution was approved by which the Chamber of Deputies declared itself to be in permanent session, the next step was to discuss the issue with the Minister, to whom they will present a series of suggestions obtained from an investigation by the commission regarding disposability of the textbooks.
The Education Commission chair, Deputy Josefa Castillo said that it was unfair that the books that the Ministry of Education gives out in the schools and polytechnic institutes in the public sector cost about RD$100, while the ones used in the private sector are so expensive.
She revealed that the same private publishers supply the books to the Ministry of Education, so that she does not understand the difference in the prices of some books and others. “If the publishing houses do not moderate their stance, do not listen, if they do not agree to a pact, the government will have to install a national publisher that will have the control of the materials for producing textbooks much less expensively.”
Castillo said that the strength of the complaint made by the president of the Chamber of Deputies, Abel Martinez, regarding the cost of the textbooks, lies in the fact that he compared publishing the Children’s Dominican Constitution, which cost RD$29.00 with other books that cost more than RD$1000.
http://www.diariolibre.com/noticias/2013/08/26/i399515_diputados-reuniran-con-ministro-por-libros-texto.html