The Dominican Association of Teachers (ADP) is the union entity that brings together the teachers of the Dominican Republic, with the purpose of fighting for better working conditions and the quality of the Dominican educational system.
For its part, the Ministry of Education is the institution in charge of ensuring quality education in the country.
Both parties have had differences and disagreements throughout their history, the most recurrent being due to the salary earned by teachers.
On this occasion, the ADP has launched another offensive to fight for a new increase salary, among other claims.
On this occasion it has been evident that they attract less support from many sectors, including parents and guardians of the students. This perhaps because of the current context.
First, the country in full recovery from the covid-19 pandemic, during which much teaching was lost and this is precisely the method to be used by the union in this fight. What has led the Ministry of Education to accuse teachers of breaching the agreement signed in June of last year, in which they promised to comply with the school calendar.
And second, of course we cannot fail to refer to the world crisis from which the Dominican Republic cannot escape.
Opinions are currently divided between whether or not it is time for the ADP request.
But, how much has the salary of teachers grown since the 4% began to be applied?
When the Educational Pact was carried out in 2012, the famous 4% was allocated for education.
An important part of this percentage has been used to dignify teachers’ salaries, which for that year, adding both batches, was around 26,000 pesos at the basic level and 29,000 pesos at the secondary level.
Subsequently, a leveling was applied to the base salary, which without incentives, remained at 46 thousand for 2015.
By 2020, a teacher’s salary was between 53,000 and 63,000 pesos.
