Minister of Education, Vice President Milagros Ortiz Bosch said that parents and society in general should demand that their children receive the stipulated number of class hours. She pointed out that in the United States, children receive 1,300 hours of instruction, 1,200 in Spain and 1,400 in Japan. In the DR, some 1,025 hours are stipulated on the school calendar, but in reality, public school children only receive about 600 hours, a situation that has to be corrected. She urged parents to demand these hours for their children. The defacto reduction in school periods is due to the fact that unionized teachers take time off from school to discuss their labor problems and to the many strikes that affect public education.
