The Ministry of Education reports that its Community Participation Department is helping 91,000 public school students who have not been able to complete their registration for lack of identity documents.
As reported in Diario Libre, department director Bienvenido Flores Pichardo announced that in the next two months they would try to declare 80% (around 72,800) of students affected. Their lack of legal status prevents them from graduating from high school, and getting jobs to progress in life and move out of poverty.
Pichardo said it is a complex situation that affects around 780,000 families, adding that many of these students have not been declared because their parents and grandparents do not have birth certificates either.
The Ministry of Education has allocated RD$60 million to support the students and their relatives in the application process, including notary, psychological, food allowances and transportation costs.
The process is being coordinated with the Ministry of Public Health, the Ministry of Interior and Police, the Central Electoral Board and the Migration Department.
An inventory by the Ministry of Education found that the largest number undocumented students are enrolled in schools in Santo Domingo and the south, mostly in elementary school. Flores said that approximately 65% are acknowledged as Dominicans, while only 35% are said to be foreigners. In the case of the foreigners, Flores said they would be registered in the Foreigners’ Book.
The goal is to provide legal documentation to the children and their families to reduce poverty and meet one of the Millennium Development Goals that is to provide quality education.
www.diariolibre.com/noticias/2014/03/18/i529901_gestionarn-actas-nacimiento-para-000-estudiantes-escuelas.html