Ministry of Education will take advantage of Christmas holidays to repair more than 500 schoolsPosted 12 hours ago on October 11, 2019By Writing
SANTO DOMINGO. - The Directorate of Maintenance of School Infrastructure (DIGMIE) of the Ministry of Education (MINERD), will take advantage of the period of student vacations for the Christmas holidays, to conclude the repair of more than 500 pending educational centers nationwide, while will initiate a tender for 1,500 million pesos for the adaptation of school sites that will be incorporated into the extended batch mode.
Engineer Adolfo Cedeño, director of DIGMIE said that many contractors are in full work to leave those centers ready for quality education, while others are pending hiring through a bidding process.
"On the instructions of the Minister Antonio Peña Mirabal, we will take advantage of the time of the Christmas holidays so that these contractors who have an assigned budget, can work more freely in the maintenance of more than 500 schools," he said.
The official said that the budget of the Minerd for next year, contemplates an investment of 1,500 million pesos for the adaptation of hundreds of schools that, once they receive the readjustment of the required facilities, will extend their teaching day to an extended run.
He added that the tender will be held in the remainder of this year to implement the campus redevelopment program from January 2020.
He said that the schools that will be incorporated into the Extended School Day will be built kitchen-dining room, annex buildings for new classrooms, bathrooms, sports courts and other facilities, in addition to a process of remodeling such as roof waterproofing, painting, gardening, repairs sanitary and others.
The Minerd has achieved a coverage of almost 75 percent of the student enrollment in an extended batch, so that the readjustment of hundreds of other schools will generate a remarkable advance in the achievement of the goal of universalizing that modality throughout the national territory .
Cedeño said that hundreds of schools will undergo general repairs and renovation of their recreation, gardening, painting and other details that must be taken into account for their operation in Extended School Day.
“When a center is passed to the extended batch mode, many times there are two batches that become a single general batch, so they require more classrooms, a kitchen-dining room, new bathrooms due to the increase in the number of students , among other facilities, ”he said.