President Leonel Fernández announced that the government will open its first public bilingual school in January. He said this is part of a program that seeks to bring bilingual education (Spanish-English) to low income students. In his opinion, bilingual education has been restricted to the affluent, and children of public schools only received English classes. "If our children do not acquire the knowledge these times demand, and form their characters adequately for the times, if we do not form citizens for a truly democratic society, our illusions for a better country will evaporate," he said. "We have to start with education," said President Fernández upon making the announcement.
