DR at the bottom of PISA education ranking

Chirimoya

Well-known member
Dec 9, 2002
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Seeing as much of the 4% is being spent on school buildings (i.e. juicy contracts and kickbacks) and jeepetas and top-range smartphones for ministry officials, what's the big surprise?*

A relative who lives in a provincial town was impressed by the new school facilities and attracted by the prospect of the extended school day so they enrolled their child in the state school. By October they had already taken her out and put her in a private school, mainly because the school would close every time it rained.
 

caribmike

Gold
Jul 9, 2009
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72 countries and around 540,000 students participated in PISA tests, DR scored STONE COLD DEAD LAST.
http://www.elcaribe.com.do/2016/12/06/obtiene-ultimo-lugar-evaluacion-rendimiento-escolar

more details can be found here:
http://www.oecd.org/pisa/

summary of results here:
http://www.oecd.org/pisa/pisa-2015-results-in-focus.pdf

What else? Expected, unfortunately no surprise... :(

Barber to me: where have you been?

Me: Bahia de las Aguilas.

Barber: Ah, que bueno. Samana...

They don't even now what is beyond the letrina in their backyard... not even their own little country. What do you expect?
 

dv8

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Sep 27, 2006
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Seeing as much of the 4% is being spent on school buildings (i.e. juicy contracts and kickbacks) and jeepetas and top-range smartphones for ministry officials, what's the big surprise?

and recent rains on the NC showed that many of those school buildings are completely worthless: built in vulnerable areas, badly constructed and plagued with filtration issues.
 

zoomzx11

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Jan 21, 2006
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Vast majority of Dominicans cannot read and write. A country without a library system. There really are no books other than Tom Clancy novels discarded by tourists. School closings due to rain makes Dominican sense as we know getting wet causes all sorts of grippes. Reading is not seen as necessary or important. Sad and no changes on the horizon. The poor public ed system will keep the DR a third world country.Hate to be so pessimistic.
 
Jun 18, 2007
14,280
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www.rentalmetrocountry.com
What else? Expected, unfortunately no surprise... :(

Barber to me: where have you been?

Me: Bahia de las Aguilas.

Barber: Ah, que bueno. Samana...

They don't even now what is beyond the letrina in their backyard... not even their own little country. What do you expect?

Maybe they don't know where Bahia de las Aguilas is but I'm pretty sure that they know where Nueva Yol is. ;)
 

caribmike

Gold
Jul 9, 2009
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Nueva Yol is the country where are Boston, Washington and Miami in, everybody knows that :D
 

the gorgon

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Sep 16, 2010
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Vast majority of Dominicans cannot read and write. A country without a library system. There really are no books other than Tom Clancy novels discarded by tourists. School closings due to rain makes Dominican sense as we know getting wet causes all sorts of grippes. Reading is not seen as necessary or important. Sad and no changes on the horizon. The poor public ed system will keep the DR a third world country.Hate to be so pessimistic.

zoom, you are not being pessimistic. you are being realistic. i blogged about this years ago, predicting no change in the education system...EVER! *a country that stages a competition to design a classroom desk is not a serious place.*
 

GringoRubio

Bronze
Oct 15, 2015
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72 countries and around 540,000 students participated in PISA tests, DR scored STONE COLD DEAD LAST.
http://www.elcaribe.com.do/2016/12/06/obtiene-ultimo-lugar-evaluacion-rendimiento-escolar

more details can be found here:
http://www.oecd.org/pisa/

summary of results here:
http://www.oecd.org/pisa/pisa-2015-results-in-focus.pdf


If you spend some time in these schools, the scores are not surprising. I'm amazed if any learning goes on and the parents are just as apathetic. It's a mystery to me why they even go through the charade of sending the kids to school with uniforms, etc. It's a pointless exercise depending on the school.

I've got a 9 year old boy in the house and it's an ongoing disagreement to get the kid his required books. I'm willing to pay, but it's getting to the point where I'll need to go with the kid to school, get the list of books, and buy them. I suspect they will just get dumped behind a bush at some point because carrying them is a burden. It's a real WTF situation. The kicker is that my girlfriend is more worried about him walking in the "hot sun" despite the fact that I walk it everyday in under 5 minutes without concern. (It might be that he's dark skinned and she doesn't want him any darker. It's defies reality).

I compare this to Nicaragua and there's no comparison. The families are actively involved and pay a far greater portion of their family income for the children. The children have what they need by one way or another. Every grade that they advance is celebrated.
 
Aug 21, 2007
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dv9, thanks again for posting this type of information. You make educational research easy for me.

I believe this is the first year that the DR is participating with the OECD countries. Prior to this year, it was not part of the group.

Still, no excuse.

I can give countless examples of how sad the system of education is. And I fault the system.

Example 1: Strength for the Journey holds classes for the poor. We are now in Jamao. Kids in Jamao do not go to school if it is raining. Rule for my classes is rain or shine, you are obligated to come or bring a written excuse. As a result, kids do not attend school, but they DO show up for SFTJ classes. My kids walk as much as 2 miles in rain without umbrellas to attend. SFTJ attendance rate is about 95%.

This experience includes my teen volunteers. Instead of going to school on a rainy day, they come to assist in SFTJ classes.

The Lesson: Set the expectation high. Follow through. Students will meet the expectation.

Example 2: Students must arrive on time for my classes. If they are 10 minutes late, they may stay, sit, and observe, but not participate.

Most kids don't have clocks in their houses. They don't know what time it is. To compensate, they arrive for class as much as 2 hours early and wait.


Example 3: Problem solving skills are horribly lacking.

Kids in SFTJ classes are mixed ages, 5 - 13. I purchased board puzzles, similar to what is used in Canada, US, UK pre-schools. The puzzles had 8, 12, 18 pieces. The first time the kids went to use them, they had no idea that the pieces with a straight edge would fit onto the side of the puzzle and 2 straight edges indicated a corner piece. They had no plan in assembling the puzzle. They did not sort pieces by color. They did not look at the picture of the puzzle. It was taking ALL the kids, including the 13 year olds, as much ad 30 minutes to put together a simple puzzle.

After one or two weeks, they caught on, working harder and harder puzzles. They can now almost complete a 200 piece puzzle in one hour, working in a group of 4.

All, in all, I believe high expectations, strict rules that are enforced, access to textbooks and educational materials, and exposure to problem solving would alone increase these pathetic OECD test scores. If kids are not expected and motivated to achieve, you won't get much more than results at rock bottom of the list.
 
Aug 21, 2007
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It must be my lack of education, being from the UK, but was is an SFTJ class?

Strength for the Journey (sorry, did not explain) is a local Dominican Republic foundation that I direct. We provide enrichment classes at no cost for poor Dominican children. Previously, we had a learning center in Sosua. Now, we are located in Jamao. Classes are in addition to the regular school day. Although we teach in Spanish, we use American methodology, lots of hands-on learning materials, technology, and problem solving.
 

Peterj

Bronze
Oct 7, 2002
1,461
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83
Dominican Republic
Vast majority of Dominicans cannot read and write. A country without a library system. There really are no books other than Tom Clancy novels discarded by tourists. School closings due to rain makes Dominican sense as we know getting wet causes all sorts of grippes. Reading is not seen as necessary or important. Sad and no changes on the horizon. The poor public ed system will keep the DR a third world country.Hate to be so pessimistic.

Unfortunately you are not pessimistic, you are 100% realistic.
 

jd_mine

Active member
Sep 24, 2003
166
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Reading is not seen as necessary or important.

This one never ceases to amaze me. I have had several university educated Dominicans tell me I should not read so much because it is bad for my eyes and will give me a headache.
 

Mauricio

Gold
Nov 18, 2002
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What I would like to know is if the students that participated from DR are mainly from public or private schools. A befriended school director said it's mainly public schools but I didn't see information on that.
 

dv8

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Sep 27, 2006
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What I would like to know is if the students that participated from DR are mainly from public or private schools. A befriended school director said it's mainly public schools but I didn't see information on that.

it's possible but i also did not see it clearly stated.

this article says that PISA is for 15 year old students, regardless of the type of school they go to: La prueba PISA tiene por objetivo medir cu?n preparados est?n las personas j?venes para una vida adulta como miembros de una sociedad, con la ?nica caracter?stica en com?n de que todos los estudiantes evaluados tengan 15 a?os de edad cumplidos al momento de aplicarla, sin importar el nivel o grado en el que est?n cursando y sin importar si asisten a centros educativos p?blicos o privados.
http://www.diariolibre.com/noticias...sultados-del-pais-en-la-prueba-pisa-YX5660809

on the other hand, the biggest excuse to such major failure say that the students participating entered the education system way before the application of 4% which clearly refers to public system only as private sector is not financed from the budget: La Acci?n Empresarial por la Educaci?n (EDUCA) consider? que los resultados del Programa para la Evaluaci?n Internacional de los Estudiantes (PISA por sus siglas en ingl?s), eran previsibles porque los estudiantes evaluados ingresaron al sistema educativo ocho a?os antes de que comenzara a asignarse el 4% del PIB a la educaci?n.
(from the same article)
 

dv8

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Sep 27, 2006
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so yeah, judging by the reaction of MINERD the participating students came from public schools.
 

bob saunders

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Jan 1, 2002
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it's possible but i also did not see it clearly stated.

this article says that PISA is for 15 year old students, regardless of the type of school they go to: La prueba PISA tiene por objetivo medir cu?n preparados est?n las personas j?venes para una vida adulta como miembros de una sociedad, con la ?nica caracter?stica en com?n de que todos los estudiantes evaluados tengan 15 a?os de edad cumplidos al momento de aplicarla, sin importar el nivel o grado en el que est?n cursando y sin importar si asisten a centros educativos p?blicos o privados.
http://www.diariolibre.com/noticias...sultados-del-pais-en-la-prueba-pisa-YX5660809

on the other hand, the biggest excuse to such major failure say that the students participating entered the education system way before the application of 4% which clearly refers to public system only as private sector is not financed from the budget: La Acci?n Empresarial por la Educaci?n (EDUCA) consider? que los resultados del Programa para la Evaluaci?n Internacional de los Estudiantes (PISA por sus siglas en ingl?s), eran previsibles porque los estudiantes evaluados ingresaron al sistema educativo ocho a?os antes de que comenzara a asignarse el 4% del PIB a la educaci?n.
(from the same article)

They could put 10% in the public school system but until they invest in and action a proper pedagogy program at all the institutes of higher learning.
The majority of teachers don't a full understanding of lesson preparation, presentation, association, generalization, and application. Student learning and achievement are not their goals. Their goal is to receive a paycheck while surviving their job as a teacher.
School is a place where students should be acquiring knowledge, learning skills, and developing values that prepare them to grow to their fullest potential and contribute to society as good citizens and developed human beings. This is an overwhelming task in a society that has evolved the way the Dominican society has , a society that rewards criminal politicians and encourages the easy way to accomplish things, usually by stealing from somebody else's hards work and a sense of entitlement that those that have more need to give to those that have less, even though those that have less have been sitting on their ass drinking rum all day.
Fortunately not all Dominicans think this way and hopefully there are enough that they can force the changes required, little by little.
 

bob saunders

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Jan 1, 2002
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Vast majority of Dominicans cannot read and write. A country without a library system. There really are no books other than Tom Clancy novels discarded by tourists. School closings due to rain makes Dominican sense as we know getting wet causes all sorts of grippes. Reading is not seen as necessary or important. Sad and no changes on the horizon. The poor public ed system will keep the DR a third world country.Hate to be so pessimistic.

There are some Dominicans that can't read or write. There are many that aren't proficient at either, but most have the basics. The majority of children at our school can read basic Spanish by the end of grade one, and many accomplish this in preprimario. We get children from the public school system that can't read or do math and they are in grade two or three. Usually within two or three months they have caught up close to grade level, unless they have a leaning disability. Your last sentence in regards to third world status may be true but remember that the government invested the time and effort to have students take these international exams to see where their system stood. Now they know, the question is what are they going to do about it.