The announcement of Ministry of Education that it will subsidize with bonds of 500 dollars the schooling of students who do not have a place in the public system has been highly valued by various institutions linked to the sector.
Although the authorities have not explained the mechanism through which the contribution will be applied so that those who were left out of public educational centers study in private institutions, it is considered a positive, sensible and pragmatic measure.
Others have their reservations about how this program could be executed so that no child is left out of the classroom, due to the complexity involved.
The Association of Private Educational Institutions (Ainep), understands that the decision of the Minerd is positive and more sensible than renting spaces that possibly do not have the conditions for teaching and would have to be created, which would take time.
Jorge Luis Pelaez considers that, if there are schools that have the space or quota, the most logical thing is that they try to insert those students who, due to lack of space, cannot be enrolled in public schools.
In this sense, he reported that at the request of the Minerd, the entity he presides over has provided his support to channel the collection of information with the Private Educational Institutions (IEP) in order to determine the availability of quotas by grades and educational levels.
“The Ainep has been fully available to the authorities of the MINERD and with all our membership, so that each Private Educational Institution voluntarily determines directly with their respective educational regions, the feasibility of contributing to the objectives outlined in the face of the over demand that currently the Dominican government has in school campuses, “he explained.
“It is good to highlight that a student in the public sector costs the state approximately 100,000 pesos per year so with this they would be having savings and the most important thing is that no child is left out of the classroom due to circumstances that sometimes they do not control, such as student movements or in other cases, unfortunately, a lack of planning,” he explained to Diario Libre.
For Acción Empresarial por la Educación (Educa), it is an appropriate and pragmatic solution and with this the Minister of Education is honoring the concept that the educational system is one that has a public offer and a private offer of educational services.
Darwin Caraballo, executive director of the entity, states that the solution of providing a bonus to low-income students to access quotas in private education, is given the lack of public offer in some localities of the country that are pressing the increase of the enrollment in public schools.
“In particular, there must be two points, the first is that the cost of this bonus is less than or equal to the cost that each student represents for the educational budget, the second point is that the family and the student should be required to pay for this effort made by Dominican society to give him the possibility of a scholarship in a private educational center,” Caraballo said.
The ADP has its reservations
The president of the Dominican Association of Teachers (ADP), Edward Hidalgounderstands that a definitive solution must be thought of, such as finishing the schools that are in various stages of construction.
According to the union leader, some 118,000 adolescents and young people from secondary school and another 240,000 from the initial and primary level have not been able to enroll in public educational centers.
He considers that the bonds for 100,000 places do not solve the problem if another 200,000 are left behind, so he insisted that this be solved with the completion of the schools that have been paralyzed for years.
He suggested to the Minerd to take advantage of some 1,500 schools that closed during the coronavirus pandemic. COVID-19since they could work temporarily to cover the demand of the student overpopulation that currently does not find space in schools.
lack of planning
Juan Ariel Jimenezformer Minister of Economy, Planning and Development, said that the new management inherited the problem of lack of planning that has characterized these two years of the PRM government and that it is a failure both of the Ministry of Finance in the budgetary part, and of the Ministry of Education in the execution part of the budget.
“As no work has been done on the completion of the classrooms that exist, even with more than 70% progress and due to the natural increase in the student population due to population growth, then they are facing this situation that in some localities there is not enough space for students”, he pointed out.
Jiménez understands that the ideal response would have been to plan in advance and carry out the construction and completion of those classrooms, because that way the bond measure would not have to be applied. He also considers that another option would have been to implement the double batch in some specific locations, as an exception and not as a rule.
