NewsWhore
09-30-2011, 03:30 PM
The Coalition for Dignified Education, which is campaigning for the government to comply with the Education Law 66-97 that calls for 4% of GDP to be allocated to public education, is focusing on the high cost of adding a classroom.
The Coalition says that a classroom now costs US$77,000 (around RD$2 million) and there is a deficit of 20,000 classrooms in the country, as reported in El Nacional. The total takes into account bathrooms, sports areas and minimum comfort for students and teachers.
The Coalition says that around 32,000 classrooms are in use, and 11,000 of them need to be refurbished or rebuilt to become adequate classrooms. Classrooms are currently used in three shifts and on Saturdays and Sundays, but the government envisions limiting classroom use to two shifts and reducing the number of students from the current 60 per classroom in public schools to 35 students, which will require an additional 20,000 classrooms.
Educacion Digna estimates that the government needs to raise its spending on public education to US$500 per student to US$2,000 per student, the average in Latin America.
These comments were made yesterday during a luncheon meeting hosted by the Corripio media group. Maria Teresa Cabrera, a former president of the Public School Teachers Union, Reverend Mario Serrano and economists Nelson Suarez and Mariana Barrenese took part in the event. They argued that the government has had the resources to fulfill the law by meeting the 4% target but what has been lacking is political will.
They said the government has accumulated a debt of RD$360 billion in arrears in fulfillment of the 4% law since its approval in 1997. This is their estimate of what the government would have spent on education if it had complied with the 4% law.
The coalition leads a movement that is organizing a national march for education in Santo Domingo on Sunday 2 October, departing from the UASD to end at the Independence Park.
Congress has been entrusted with the 2012 bill that again fails to allocate the 4% GDP or 16% of the budget resources to education. Educacion Digna is campaigning for Congress to instate the full amount for education in the bill.
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#4)
The Coalition says that a classroom now costs US$77,000 (around RD$2 million) and there is a deficit of 20,000 classrooms in the country, as reported in El Nacional. The total takes into account bathrooms, sports areas and minimum comfort for students and teachers.
The Coalition says that around 32,000 classrooms are in use, and 11,000 of them need to be refurbished or rebuilt to become adequate classrooms. Classrooms are currently used in three shifts and on Saturdays and Sundays, but the government envisions limiting classroom use to two shifts and reducing the number of students from the current 60 per classroom in public schools to 35 students, which will require an additional 20,000 classrooms.
Educacion Digna estimates that the government needs to raise its spending on public education to US$500 per student to US$2,000 per student, the average in Latin America.
These comments were made yesterday during a luncheon meeting hosted by the Corripio media group. Maria Teresa Cabrera, a former president of the Public School Teachers Union, Reverend Mario Serrano and economists Nelson Suarez and Mariana Barrenese took part in the event. They argued that the government has had the resources to fulfill the law by meeting the 4% target but what has been lacking is political will.
They said the government has accumulated a debt of RD$360 billion in arrears in fulfillment of the 4% law since its approval in 1997. This is their estimate of what the government would have spent on education if it had complied with the 4% law.
The coalition leads a movement that is organizing a national march for education in Santo Domingo on Sunday 2 October, departing from the UASD to end at the Independence Park.
Congress has been entrusted with the 2012 bill that again fails to allocate the 4% GDP or 16% of the budget resources to education. Educacion Digna is campaigning for Congress to instate the full amount for education in the bill.
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#4)