RNC to be created for 1.500 schools to receive money direct from MINERD

SANTO DOMINGO. An inter-institutional commission made up of the Ministry of Education, the Directorate General of Internal Taxes (DGII), the Controller General of the Republic, and the office of the Budget Director, is working on the creation of the National Tax Payer Registry (RNC) for 1,500 schools. The aim of this work is for the schools to receive their money directly from the Budget Office, without depending on the corresponding school districts and regions. This money will be received on a quarterly basis.

The information was given by David Lapaix, the director of Financial Programming and Economic Studies of the Ministry, during the presentation of Bulletin 10 which deals with the monitoring of the budget execution of the Ministry of Education over the past year.

Ordinance 02-2008, which establishes the Regulations for the Decentralized School Boards, issued by the National Council of Education, conceives of Regional Boards, District Boards and local School and Center Boards-the latter when once building functions as more than one school or high school.

For 2014, as part of the decentralization strategy, the Ministry of Education (MINERD) set aside RD$5.0 billion for all of the boards, of which, according to Lapaix, RD$1.2 billion are for the schools. Nonetheless, the official said that they had had some difficulties to reach their goal, "because up until just recently, only 12% of the 6000 schools had boards" to administer the money.

"We have the goal of 1,500 boards, because the centers to which they belong represent nearly 75% of the students of the country," the official explained.

In the meantime, Henry Mercedes, of the Planning Office of the Minerd, said that each educational center will have to work out their Yearly Operational Plan, on which the budget of the Minerd will base the distribution of the resources.

Regarding the Boards

The Ordinance 02-2008, which establishes the Regulations for the Decentralized Boards, issued by the National Educational Council, conceives Regional, District and Central and School boards, with the latter to function when more than one school functions in a single building.

This regulation defines the Center Boards "as decentralized agencies for management and participation, charged with creating the ties between the community, the educational center and its actors, with the objective of carrying out its functions successfully."

Among its functions are the application of the development plans of the educational center, the strengthening of the relations between the school and the community and the reciprocal support of one and the other, as well as insuring the quality of the education and the fairness in the offering of educational services, supervising the good order of the issues of educational, economic and general interest for the center, including the physical plant and the nutritional programs, and of course administer the budgets that are assigned from the Ministry.

The Board of the Center will be composed of the director, a teacher, a member of the Association of Parents, Tutors and Friends of the School; a member of the community organizations and a student representative.