High Schools in DR for Dominicans

bettyvelez

New member
Feb 23, 2008
2
0
0
After visiting DR a few times I've made lots of nice friends there. I'm particularly close to this one boy and we usually hang out when I visit. He's 19, very (street-smart) intelligent, and hard working. He works long hours though (about 12 a day) with no day off, and no option of vacation. His boss is a nightmare and treats the four employees at this small colmado with disrespect. My friend and I talk often by phone and he sounds very tired of that lifestyle. A couple of times I suggested he finish school... He left school at the age of 14 and is not very interested in returning. I tried to explain to him that this way he'll always do menial jobs and that there are too many replaceable uneducated people (including all of his friends) - and that he should do better than that. He comes up with all kinds of excuses why he couldn't finish school - be a burden to his parents (I tell him he could work part-time), he doesn't have the money, he doesn't have time, he has to work to live...

I'm hoping that someone will be able to give me an insight into the situation and answer the following questions:
1. When someone has secondary, or high school, education, does it make a difference? Are there options for better jobs?
2. Are there schools for "working adults", or schools that don't have to be attended every day? I'm particularly interested in the cities of Nagua and La Romana. This would invalidate my friend's suggestion that he doesn't have the time to go to school.
3. Are high schools affordable to Dominicans? Right now my friend makes US$240 a month, of which $100 goes to his habitacion. Basically he lives with the remaining money (I don't know how). I'm even tempted to tell him to go live with his parents and I'd pay those US$140 a month that he's currently making by working like a dog.

I'd like to help my friend a little and rear him in this direction, particularly because I was in a similar situation at his age, school stank to me and I'd been changing menial jobs until many years later I said enough & got through all kinds of schooling, and life is much better now... But of course the big difference is that I live in the US, and I'm not sure that DR is another meritocracy, and that completed high school (and maybe later university) would help there...

Any hints will be very appreciated!
I love DR

Betty
 

johne

Silver
Jun 28, 2003
7,090
2,963
113
Betty--I cannot answer your questions with authority as I do not live in the DR. BUT I can say that your thought process is 100% correct. Encourage your friend to get as much education as he can in order to advance himself.

I am sure within the next few days people that know more about this subject than I will give you more specific answers.
 

Chirimoya

Well-known member
Dec 9, 2002
17,850
982
113
Public High School - Liceo Secundario - is free and students can attend the morning, afternoon, and in some cases, evening shifts, so he should probably be able to work it round his work schedule.

I don't have specific information for La Romana or Nagua, but in larger cities and the capital there are also training institutes that focus on specific skills like tourism, computers, technical, English.

Someone in his situation should try and get his Bachillerato (High School qualification) - it will definitely enhance his work opportunities - and after that at least some further vocational training and if possible, university studies. The State University UASD costs very little and almost all the students there hold down jobs at the same time as studying. Only a small percentage manage to graduate, but that's another story.

If you are able to help him with encouragement, possibly some financial support, this is one of the best contributions you can make. He is a lucky young man to have a friend like you.
 

cuas

New member
May 29, 2006
360
10
0
If you want to help I suggest do not give him money. There must around private schools (not costly) where he can attend whenever he has the time. If you want to help financially you can pay the school and buy him the supplies, maybe also pay a teacher for some tutoring but as said he can go to public school in the evening. The best thing for him will be to go back to his parents but you cannot force him but if makes money hanging around tourists he will not go back to school. I hope you can change his mind.
 

Danny W

Bronze
Mar 1, 2003
999
12
0
You can not instill ambition in someone else. Perhaps that is your friend's problem - not a mean boss.

My wife works 2 jobs, raises 2 kids and goes to school at night. I am in New York, and she is in Sosua. She does not need to do these things; she knows that I am happy to support them. But she believes in taking advantage of her opportunities; she has ambition.

-D
 

Hillbilly

Moderator
Jan 1, 2002
18,948
514
113
No money.
he can go to school, just like Chirimoya said, mornings, evenings, Saturdays, Sundays.
there are programs on programs, and La Romana has them all. Nagua, being aout of the way place, might not but it will have morning afternoon and evening sessions of seconday education.

I think I would tell the fellow that either get educated or forget it...Street smarts is a dead end (Callej?n sin salida), and he certainly knows it.

There are just too many cases of people making it with classes from Infotep, or the Escuelas Vocacionales de las Fuerzas Armadas, or the Institutos Salesianos...

There is no real excuse beyond laziness and complacency..

Good luck with the kid...

Oh yeah, do not think he is really a friend...

HB