NewsWhore
09-30-2010, 04:20 PM
Education Minister Melanio Paredes said that while it is true that the ministry would receive an increase of RD$4.5 billion in its budget, this falls way behind what is needed and will slow down programs begun this year and cancel a wage increase for teachers, among other plans. Paredes told Hoy that he had hoped for at least RD$45 billion for 2011, as established in the 10-Year Education Plan. The government has allotted RD$41.5 billion in the proposed 2011 budget. Paredes expressed disappointment at the fact that the cut will reduce the number of classrooms that can be built, teacher training and the educational TV programs in selected schools. "Historically, Dominican education has never had the budget or the investment it deserves. It is a structural problem," he said. This year the ministry received RD$37 billion, but Paredes says this is not nearly enough.
He said the 2011 budget includes a chapter for pensioning off 2,000 teachers next year, another for creating 2,300 posts and another for school maintenance.
Former president of the Public School Teachers Association (ADP), Maria Teresa Cabrera said that the increase is not a real increase. She said that it is a reduction compared to the present budget. She said in 2009, the Ministry of Education received 2.4% of the GDP, but in 2011, it will only get 1.95%. "The government is making a farce of the 10-Year Education Plan," she said. The government had committed to invest at least 3.42% of the GDP in 2011.
Cabrera says: "The obligation to provide education from basic to middle level as set out in the new Constitution is a simple statement, more rhetoric. Because to get out of the backwardness that we have in education is not a priority for the government."
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#5)
He said the 2011 budget includes a chapter for pensioning off 2,000 teachers next year, another for creating 2,300 posts and another for school maintenance.
Former president of the Public School Teachers Association (ADP), Maria Teresa Cabrera said that the increase is not a real increase. She said that it is a reduction compared to the present budget. She said in 2009, the Ministry of Education received 2.4% of the GDP, but in 2011, it will only get 1.95%. "The government is making a farce of the 10-Year Education Plan," she said. The government had committed to invest at least 3.42% of the GDP in 2011.
Cabrera says: "The obligation to provide education from basic to middle level as set out in the new Constitution is a simple statement, more rhetoric. Because to get out of the backwardness that we have in education is not a priority for the government."
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#5)