The closure of hundreds of private schools in the Dominican Republic over the past six years has placed a significant burden on the public education system, according to education sector leaders, Diario Libre reports. While official data doesn’t directly track the movement of students from closed private schools to public ones, experts believe it is a key factor behind the increased demand for public school enrollment. The public school system is now hard pressed to meet the demand in time for the school year that opens this August 2025.
Once the government authorized that 4% of the GDP be allocated to public school education in 2012, private schools found themselves hardpressed to compete for students. The better teachers in private schools moved on to the better-paying public schools that also offered better perks. Likewise, parents were attracted by free school meals, school supplies and books that were offered in the public school system.
Diario Libre reports that between 2018 and 2024, the number of private schools dropped from 2,638 to 2,285, a decrease of 353 institutions. Simultaneously, the number of private school campuses fell from 2,471 to 1,937. This decline is reflected in enrollment figures, which show a decrease of nearly 88,000 students in the private urban sector between the 2018-2019 and 2023-2024 school years.
“Undoubtedly, with the economic pressure or constraint, there was a movement from the private sector to the public sector,” said Yahaira Sosa, executive director of the business education group Acción Empresarial por la Educación (Educa). Sosa noted that while the private sector is recovering from the pandemic, it has not yet reached pre-Covid levels, unlike the public system that has benefited from state support.
The Association of Private Educational Institutions (AINEP) attributes the closures to a combination of factors, including the post-pandemic economic shock and heightened salary pressure from the public sector, as reported in Diario Libre. AINEP pointed out that many private schools struggled to retain teachers after public school salaries increased. The organization describes the situation as “multifactorial,” with families also migrating to the public sector for educational needs.
In response to the growing demand, the Ministry of Education has implemented a scholarship program that allows public school students to attend private schools. Sosa of Educa praised the initiative, emphasizing its role in ensuring all students have access to quality education. “The idea with this is that no one is left out of the education system, and as the Education Law itself establishes, the state is obliged to provide a quality education,” she said.
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Diario Libre
6 August 2025