Teachers to undergo performance evaluation

Santo Domingo.- The Ministry of Education has announced that itwill be evaluating the performance of teachers, saying that this measure would enable teachers to receive additional incentives applied totheir income.

These benefits will becomeeffective in January 2014, retroactive to November 2013, and will be subject toa performance evaluation process that assesses each teacher’s level ofachievement in terms of role and responsibilities.

The Director of Human Resources atthe ministry, Carmen Pujols, said that these evaluations would take place inOctober and November, and that the texts and formats that will be used for thispurpose are in the process of development.

Pujols also confirmed that the salary increase for teachers, educational specialists and administrative staffin the sector had become effective on Tuesday, stressing that the increase is the mostsignificant in the last 15 years.

The adjustment represents approximatelyRD$650 per month, or RD$7.8 billion a year for the ministry’s expenditure onteachers’ payroll.

Teachers will be paid RD$19,000 for one shift or session, and teachers who teach two shifts willreceive RD$33,241.

The president of the DominicanTeachers Association (ADP) Eduardo Hidalgo, reiterated that the teachers’salaries are still a pittance, even with the 20% increase applied by theMinistry of Education. He warned that the sector’s struggle for better livingand working conditions would not be stopped and that it would go “as far as thegovernment wants it to go”. He described this action as arbitrary, because theydid not take the ADP’s proposal into account.