Minister of Education Milagros Ortiz Bosch says the state of education is tragic. Recently, chief economist of the World Bank for Latin America and the Caribbean, Guillermo Perry, pointed out in an interview with Hoy newspaper that the country spends less on education than other countries at the same level. The Vice President said the money allotted to education is insufficient. Speaking at the American Chamber of Commerce luncheon, she said there is a deficit of 6,378 classrooms, 945 schools without power and another 1,062 without bathrooms. She said 87% of the school age population is getting a basic education but only 53% finishes the two levels of basic education. She feels there is an important need for more vocational education to provide the incentives for these students to stay in school. She said the Ministry would open 23 vocational high schools and she announced a tender will soon be held for the construction of 17 more of these schools, at a cost of RD$500 million. She says the program has the financing of a US$56 million loan from the Interamerican Development Bank. She said the government is aware that it has to spend more on early education. Of a population of 948,371 children one to five years old, only 11.57% go to private schools and another 12.72% to public schools. She commented that studies show that Dominican students score very low on language and mathematics skills tests. “These are realities that challenge us all to join efforts to achieve consensus on the 2002-2012 Strategic Education Plan for which meetings will start in August,” she said.
