Education Commissioner Rita A. Sablan, in consultation with her leadership, made the recommendation to the Board of Education.
But BOE Vice Chairman Herman T. Guerrero said he “hates” to see the Advance Development Institute program suspended, and vowed to find a way to “salvage” it.
ADI helps public school dropouts to return to the classroom and obtain their high school diploma.
Its funding came from a portion of a consolidated grant amounting to about $300,000, but this was transferred last year to Northern Marianas College to support its Adult Basic Education program.
PSS can only allocate $50,000 for ADI.
During Thursday’s special board meeting, BOE did not take action on the proposed suspension of ADI.
The board’s fiscal and personnel affairs committee, which is headed by Guerrero, will review the proposal.
He said ADI serves a “significant” number of students who take special classes at Marianas High School.
“We need to seriously look at the recommendation of the commissioner on the program’s suspension,” he added. “I need to know the rationale behind this proposal because I personally believe that the program serves a purpose and it’s an alternative program for those who…want to finish high school and get the necessary training to be gainfully employed.”
ADI does not only serve “older or adult” students, he added.
“It benefits a lot of the kids who dropped out because something happened in the family or they became pregnant and found it difficult to go back to school — we need to help them,” he said.
ADI was supposed to complement NMC’s Adult Basic Education program, Guerrero said.
But ABE’s “success rate is not very high,” he added.
“Even though ABE is at NMC, some people are not comfortable taking the program because they’re ashamed of other people knowing that they’re there just to take the ABE program and not a college course,” Guerrero said.
