Santo Domingo. –Humming slogans such as: “The merger is privatization…”, “The merger is corruption…” and “We want an answer for the retirees…”, hundreds of teachers from Greater Santo Domingo gathered this Thursday at a civic parade in Parque Independencia to reject the merger of the Ministries of Educationand Higher Education Science and Technology.
The National Executive Committee of the Dominican Association of Teachers, chaired by Eduardo Hidalgo, announced there that they maintain a firm position against the project and from now on they will begin a process of upward struggle, which will end in the National Palace if President Luis Abinader does not respond to the call to desist from that plan.
“Education has many needs and 4 percent has to be for pre-university education, we believe, as established by the Higher Education Law, that the percentage that corresponds to them (5%) must be applied to them,” proclaimed Eduardo Hidalgo.
In an environment cordoned off by agents of the National Police, and supported by numerous organizations and teaching currents, the president of the union said that taking the 4 percent money to finance higher education is not a solution.
“In addition, we have infrastructure problems, a lack of teachers, the administrative staff is falling apart with onion salaries; pensioners and retirees are waiting for their living conditions to improve, as well as waiting for the Teacher Performance Evaluation process to be fulfilled, respecting the 2023 agreement;”, Hidalgo emphasized.
Between applause and deafening whistles for their demands to be heard, the president of the ADP meant that sooner rather than later they also have to talk about the salary indexation of teachers.
Among other demands, retirees and pensioners asked for the end of the “survival insurance” discount; empty bonus or salary 14 like other state institutions have; just as the teachers who remain in the Eligible Bank are named; ratification of the Teaching Coordinators; strengthening of the ARS SEMMA, they also demanded respect and appreciation of the figure of the teacher and their union.
Project withdrawal
Rafael Féliz, member of the National Executive Committee of the ADP, said that what they are looking for with this civic stop is for President Luis Abinader to withdraw the project from Congress, because it is an attempt to use money from public schools to finance universities.
“We are not going to allow that, it is an attempt to control the money for public education and favor the richest sectors of the population, who are the owners of the universities,” Feliz emphasized in the civic parade that he described as forceful.
The activity was attended by the Observatory of the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo, the Collective for the Quality of Education chaired by Professor Juan Valdez and dozens of union organizations.
