The Ministry of Education announced a program that seeks to teach to read and write 80% of the illiterate inhabitants in frontier provinces. The program will be reaching out to 95,000 inhabitants at a cost of RD$54 million. Provinces included in the program are Elías Piña, Jimaní, Bahoruco, Independencia, Santiago Rodríguez, Monte Cristi, Dajabón and Pedernales. Statistics show that 24% of the adult population in the frontier, the poorest region in the DR, can not read or write. The national illiteracy rate is 17%.
