Speaking at the 1998 Student Merit awards ceremony held yesterday in the National Palace, President Fernández affirmed that his government will guarantee that all public school students have access to computers and related technological innovations, because "that is what will move us into the 21st Century." He declared that by year-end at least half of the nation’s public schools will have computer laboratories installed, and he guaranteed that the other half will as well before his term of office is completed in August 2000. In a related story, Vice President Jaime David Fernández Mirabal presided over the delivery yesterday to the Education and Culture Ministry of 500 computers donated by the Government of Taiwan to Dominican schools. Taiwan has pledged to donate 5,000 computers to the DR’s Informatics Education Program. This first installment on fulfilling that pledge will go to the 125 computer laboratories already set up in secondary schools across the nation, said Education Minister Ligia Amada Melo. Computer classes for primary school children are not due to start until the 1999-2000 school year. Taiwan’s Ambassador, Kuo Kang, said that this first installment will be followed shortly by 500 more computers and 1,000 more within one year.
