Minerd says poor teachers need to receive training rather than incentives
The Dominican Association of Teachers returned for the second time this year to hold a national rally in front of the Ministry of Education, this time to demand that the incentives for the teacher evaluation that will take place next October not be modified.
“Where are the incentives?”; “Let the agreements be paid now?”; “The minister has not complied, we are all going out to the streets,” were some of the slogans shouted by the teachers while they were demonstrating in front of the Ministry’s headquarters on Máximo Gómez Avenue in the National District.
With a smaller quorum of protesters, the Teachers Association made itself felt again, in a rally held a few weeks before the resumption of teaching. In this protest, representatives of the 155 teacher branches met in front of the Minerd to shout: “Evaluation without modification.”
The Adepeista leaders shouted at the top of their voices as representatives from the sections of Greater Santo Domingo, San Cristobal, Peravia, Monte Plata, San Pedro Macoris, Monsignor Nouel, Juan Sanchez Ramirez, San Francisco de Macoris, Samana, Maria Trinidad Sanchez, La Vega, Santiago and Hato Mayor, among other provinces, arrived.
According to the resolution, the scale and percentages resulting from the evaluation of teacher performance are as follows: an excellent teacher should receive a 32% incentive on the base salary; if he is very good, 28%; a good one is entitled to 24% and a teacher with room for improvement or who is deficient is entitled to 17% and it is this last point of the incentive scale that the Ministry opposes, because they say that, “deficient teachers cannot be rewarded.”
It is worth highlighting: “All this is in addition to the incentives for academic qualifications and time in service, which range from 5% to 20%,” the document adds.
Other guilds
At the mass event, not only the teachers made their presence felt, because other union representatives gathered there to support the teachers, such as representatives of Faprouasd, the Dominican Association of Nurses and other union representatives and their respective organizations.
Claims
The president of the teachers’ union, Eduardo Hidalgo, read a speech lasting more than 20 minutes in which he stressed that they are not asking for a salary increase but rather that the scale of incentives for teacher evaluation, established by the agreement signed in 2014, not be modified.
He also responded to the statement to the public and the educational community that the Ministry of Education issued yesterday during a press conference, at the same time as making a series of demands and setting a date for them to be met.
In his speech, Hidalgo assured that among the axes that mobilized the ADEPE members to this demonstration were the Performance Evaluation as he already mentioned, the improvement of schools, completing the salary readjustment for retirees and pensioners, incentives for counselors, pedagogical coordinators, psychologists and directors of educational centers due to the complexity of their position.
The repair and construction of schools that are still lacking in some parts of the country, to compensate for the lack of teaching and administrative staff, among other demands.
After outlining the points of his claim, he added that, “today we will be giving a strong response to that abuser” (Minister Ángel Hernández). He also stressed that they are holding the rally during the vacation period so that they have time to meet their demands, and thus they can have a peaceful school year.
Warnings
During his energetic speech, Hidalgo stressed: “We are here, but standing, and we will be fighting until the conditions of the schools improve, so that the schools being completed are ready by September at the latest, along with all the schools undergoing maintenance. In addition, all the missing personnel must be appointed by September 2024.”
The president of the ADP warned saying that, “Listen carefully, gentlemen of the Minerd, in August of this year the assistant teachers for the initial level must be appointed.” While the protesting teachers shouted out loud: “Listen now, stop blah blah blah.”
“Poor teachers need training”
While the Dominican Association of Teachers is coming together to carry out a fight that the Ministry describes as “unreasonable,” Francisco D’Oleo, Vice Minister of Teacher Accreditation and Certification, spoke on the program “Despierta con CDN” and says that it is not possible that a teacher who has a level of deficiency is recognized with a 17% increase.
He added that it should be the opposite, because teachers who present this deficiency must enter continuous, permanent training programs with follow-up so that they can overcome the deficiencies that have been revealed in teacher evaluations, explained D’Oleo.
He says the problem comes because a radical sector of the ADP says that the 2014 resolution is non-negotiable for them.
