Santo Domingo. — The Citizen Collective for Educational Quality alerted the Dominican population about what it considers serious institutional and democratic setbacks contained in the bill that seeks to merge the Ministry of Education (MINERD) and the Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Technology (MESCYT).
As explained by the group in a statement, the main risks are concentrated in articles 16 to 21 of the legislative proposal, which propose the elimination of the National Council of Education and the National Council of Higher Education, bodies that – in accordance with current laws – have a deliberative and regulatory nature. Instead – he points out – the project proposes the creation of an advisory council without decision-making power, which, in the opinion of the group, would concentrate all strategic decisions and the management of public funds in the educational sector in the figure of the Minister of Education.
The Citizen Collective maintained that this centralization would mean the elimination of the technical and democratic plurality that the educational system requires, by reducing the participation of teachers, researchers, directors, students, families and communities in the formulation and evaluation of public policies. In his opinion, this would weaken the credibility, legitimacy and scientific rigor of the decisions in an area protected by the constitutional right to education.
In the statement, the organization also questioned the technical capacity of the current head of the Ministry of Education, pointing out that he has only nine months of experience in the educational area, he does not have specialized training or previous experience in public educational management. Even so, the group warned, the proposed merger would give it absolute decision-making power over the fate of the education of millions of citizens.
The group also warned about the risk of political instrumentalization and regulatory capture, considering that the concentration of regulatory and decision-making functions in a single authority could favor decisions motivated by electoral situations, personal political interests or short-term agendas, to the detriment of sustained and evidence-based educational policies. In this context, he recalled that former ministers have historically used the educational platform to promote political aspirations.
Likewise, the statement warns that the elimination of deliberative councils would mean the loss of institutional counterweights and accountability mechanisms, reducing the channels of supervision, reporting and correction of policies that especially affect vulnerable populations, such as students with disabilities, rural communities and minorities.
Regarding the quality and equity of the educational system, the Citizen Collective stated that centralization would put at risk the collegiate definition of standards, participatory evaluation and technical monitoring of results, which could deepen learning gaps and regional inequalities.
Finally, the organization maintained that the merger of MINERD and MESCYT would weaken the governance of both school education and higher education, affecting academic autonomy, institutional innovation and curricular diversity.
“Eliminating the national councils and replacing them with a purely advisory body represents a substantive risk for the quality, equity and sustainability of the Dominican educational system,” concluded the group, which described the proposal as a threat not only to the constitutional right to education, but also to democracy.
