Schools get off to slow start

Santo Domingo.- Empty classrooms or with just four or fivepupils was the order of the day on Thursday and Friday in schools around thecity, after the resumption of the 2015-2016 school year following the Christmasand New Year break.

At the Fidel Ferrer Primary School, which operates theextended school day schedule, only 137 out of 600 students showed up, barely 22.8%.The turnout was even lower in the Colombina Canario School in Santo Domingo East,which has 500 students but only 40 reported back for classes, 8%.

“This school is usually 100%, I don’t know what happenedtoday. The first day was supposed to be Tuesday 5th but the Ministrychanged it to Thursday 7th, and starting school on a Thursday can becomplicated,” stated Sonia Celanda Alcántara, the principal of the ColombinaCanario School.

The low attendance rate was also evident in the Fray RamónPané and San Mauricio schools, both in Los Jardines in the National District.

Principals and teachers at these schools blamed the lowturnout to the bad weather, as it was raining on Thursday morning. Anotherreason, they said, was the date, because restarting classes late in the week discourages many parents from sending their children to school.

The teachers made the most of the situation to work onplanning and update their registers.