Teachers from the Dominican Republic join NY schools

Faced with the massive arrival of immigrants seeking asylum, New York City faces a possible collapse in its network of shelters. For this reason, the authorities opened a new help center located on 49th Street Hell’s Kitchen, where migrants can find clothing, health resources and temporary housing, among other services.

A group of teachers from the Dominican Republic have been teaching in public schools in New York since the beginning of the school semester as part of a pilot program between the Big Apple and the Dominican Republic, where they hope to recruit more educators next year.

The teachers are all bilingual, teach various subjects (math, science, English, among others), and have been assigned to public schools in Manhattan and the Bronx to teach Latino students, including some who recently arrived in the city sent on buses. by Republican Texas Governor Greg Abbott.

It is the first time that the city of New York hires teachers in the Dominican Republic, where the Commissioner of Education, David Banks, hopes to travel soon as part of this initiative, which crystallized at the proposal of the Association of Dominican-American School Supervisors and Administrators. (ADASA for acronym in English), as reported today at a press conference promoted at the Dominican Consulate.

“Giving any subject according to the specialty of each teacher. Giving it in Spanish so that the students, there are many students here who speak Spanish, or try to speak Spanish because they are children of Latino migrants, so that they can then directly receive the bread of teaching in the language of their ancestors,” said Eligio Jáquez , consul of the Dominican Republic.

The initiative came after ADASA, the Association of Dominican-American School Supervisors and Administrators, which is developing a plan based on the objectives of the Cervantes Institute and which was accepted by the New York Department of Education.

“What each of you will represent for the young people of New York, who desperately need you, need your knowledge, the skills that you are bringing, but most of all, they need the love, the care that each one has to help them fulfill their dreams,” said Education Chancellor David Banks.

Banks also put out a message on social media about the arrival of the teachers.

“To better serve our growing population of Spanish-speaking students, #NYCPublicSchools has partnered with the Consulate General of the Dominican Republic and ADASA to recruit bilingual educators from the Dominican Republic. We plan to hire 25 educators this school year, 50 by September of 2023,” Banks said.

The teachers who came from the Dominican Republic also come to do a cultural exchange with the children of the New York schools. “It is a celebration for each immigrant, for each child who is sitting in a classroom in the schools who sees a teacher who can share immigration, who can share the pain of leaving their country, who can share the acculturation process,” explained Socorro Díaz, President of ADASA.

“There is a need for our students to receive the bread of education, Latino children who sometimes feel frustrated for not knowing the language. And it is good that we are here to help them move forward by teaching them in the different areas of knowledge,” said Jianny Ureña, a teacher from the Dominican Republic.

Around 200 teachers from the island participated in the call and 25 were selected in this first pilot plan. 50 Dominican teachers are expected to be incorporated into the city’s schools for the 2022-2023 school year.

In the New York public school system, the majority of students are Latino, with 41.1% of the population, followed by 24.4% of black children, according to data from the Department, which has 1,859 schools.

Last school semester 2021-22 (with 1,058,888 students, 71.9 percent economically disadvantaged) more than 20% of children were Spanish speakers, and 14% were learning English as a second language, Banks said at the conference, before to remember that Dominicans are the largest Latino group in this city.

But he stressed that in addition “we have students who speak Spanish who are coming from everywhere and they also need them” in reference to those who are being sent from Texas, mostly Venezuelans.

The teachers, whom Consul Eligio Jaquez called “ambassadors” of the Dominican Republic, were recruited through a company contracted by the Department of Education and will be evaluated within six months.

If the pilot program passes the test, it will be expanded to bring more bilingual teachers from both his country and other Latin American nations to teach in Spanish in public schools and thus also promote the culture of those countries, Jaquez said.

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