Senior citizens in the Dominican Republic remember studying with the books of their elder brothers and sisters. Textbooks were passed on in the families, with considerable savings for the parents. The work assignments were in separate notebooks.
But then, publishing companies invented the textbooks that incorporated workbooks. And the Ministry of Education approved these. This meant that every year, parents now have to buy new books for each child.
El Dia reports on how this business has resulted in a bonanza for school book publishers while the cost of sending a child to school has escalated. El Dia reports that the books for a grade school student are at around RD$14,000. The amount is enormous, given that the average two-income middle class household has a joint income of under RD$40,000.
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El Dia
28 July 2025