The National Institute of Student Welfare (Inabie) in coordination with the Ministry of Education (Minerd) officially launched the “School Supplies on Time for All” initiative which, for the first time in history, will reach more than 1.8 million students in more than 6,000 public schools in full and on time. Thus, 720,000 families will save 10 billion pesos for the next 2024-2025 school year.
This is a governmental disposition that will guarantee that all students who use the uniform provided by the Minerd will have, from the first day of classes, the required clothing to be in the classrooms integrated to their training process.
The launching ceremony, held at the Puerto Isabela elementary school in Cristo Rey, National District, was led by the executive director of Inabie, Victor Castro, and the vice-minister of Technical and Pedagogical Services of the Minerd, Ancell Scheker.
“This is a major milestone in the entire history of Inabie. We are going from benefiting only 30% of the student enrollment, to achieving that practically 100% of the pre-university student population that uses these uniforms in the public system has access to the supplies and uniforms, which are an essential support to reintegrate into the classrooms”, highlighted Castro.
Kits must be delivered complete to students
With this increase, Inabie will now distribute more than 1.8 million school kits to the same number of students, instead of the previous 650,000. The kits consist of a polocher, a pair of pants, a pair of shoes, a backpack, three notebooks, a pair of socks, a ruler, a pencil and a set of rulers, among others.
In this regard, the institution called on school principals not to split the kits and to deliver them in full to each student, since there is availability for the total enrollment of each school, including a 3% increase in case the enrollment increases.
For the first time, in this delivery process are included the students of pre-school and high school, who were not beneficiaries of the school supplies.
Buttonless pants
In order to provide practicality to children from 3 to 6 years of age, the pants that will be delivered to them do not have buttons or zippers.
In order to achieve the universalization of the school supplies, Inabie invested more than 5,000 million pesos in the acquisition of the school kits.
Castro explained that the “On-Time For All” will allow a relief in the economy of more than 720,000 beneficiary families who, by not having to spend around 5,000 pesos for the purchase of uniforms and school supplies in the local market for each child enrolled in public school, will be able to save together more than 10,000 million pesos.
“But the benefits do not stop there. For this whole process we are acquiring local products and integrating the MSMEs that make up more than 90% of the business fabric in the country, thus contributing to the generation of new jobs and economic growth in the areas where MSMEs operate,” Castro said during his keynote address.
For the assembly of the school kits, Inabie is receiving, in this process, 18.5 million inputs.
Delivery logistics
The distribution of school supplies began four months before the beginning of the school year. Inabie delivers the school kits to school principals in collection centers scattered throughout the country, in coordination with the 18 Regional Education Directorates and the 122 districts.
Each school principal is responsible for the custody and delivery to students and their families.
Transition year
The welfare institute explained that the 2024-2025 school year will continue to be a transition year to the new school uniform, so both the old and the new model will continue to be used.
In addition to the uniform, the Inabie delivers in each kit a backpack that this year brings as a novelty a compartment inside for laptop and on the outside a mesh for the placement of thermoses. Inside the backpack are included various supplies: three notebooks, pencil, set of rulers, ruler and eraser, among others.
In the case of the students at the initial level, their backpack is smaller and contains a notebook without lines, a pencil, crayons and a pencil sharpener.
Source: Presidencia.gob.do
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