The conflicts due to the constant class paralysis carried out by the Dominican Association of Teachers (ADP), the scandals that link teachers in sexual violations of female students and the discussions surrounding the proposed merger of the ministries of Education and Higher educationwere the relevant topics in the pre-university education in 2024.
At the beginning of December, with the assistance of representative organizations of the educational sector, the Minister of Education, Ángel Hernández, launched the preliminary version of the Ten-Year Plan 2024-2034, which outlines the guidelines to improve the quality of teaching, reduce absenteeism school, expand coverage at the initial, primary, and secondary levels and strengthen technical training.
During 2024, the ADP It paralyzed teaching in most provinces, including Santiago, San Juan, San Francisco de Macorís, Puerto Plata, San Pedro de Macorís and Barahona, whose justifications were highly questioned by various sectors of Dominican society. Some sectors attributed the school closures to partisan political reasons.
The situation reached such worrying levels that, in November, the representative of the Catholic church before him Economic and Social Councilpriest Manuel Ruiz, expressed fear for the loss of the current school year, for this reason.
The religious asked the president of the teachers’ union, Eduardo Hidalgocontrol the situation.
In the middle of this month, business leaders from Santiago expressed “great concern” about the loss of classes in public schools of that province, as a result of the stoppages and meetings during class hours.
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Just last November, the San Juan Prosecutor’s Office suspended and opened an investigation into the complaint that the mathematics teacher harassed and made sexual advances to a student under 13 years of age, from the Villa Flores elementary school, located in the Zone. South of that city.
The Prosecutor’s Office San Juan de la Maguana investigates a teacher accused of harassing and making sexual advances to a 13-year-old student from the Villa Flores elementary school, located in the southern area of that city.
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Likewise, Regional Directorate of the Ministry of Education in San Pedro de Macoris suspended the teaching and administrative staff of the La Syria Educational Center, in the municipality of Quisqueya, after opening an investigation into the complaint that 2 teachers raped a 13-year-old student.
In this case, the English teacher, Fernando Peña Eusebio, is being held in preventive detention. The mathematics teacher, Alejandro Roberto Bello, is also accused of the incident.
