The number is important: 54% of employees do not have an eighth grade education. With just 46.5% of its work force at less than the eighth grade level, the Dominican Republic is a country with one of the lowest educational achievements in Latin America.
In 2004, the nation had 1.5 million workers that had not reached the eighth grade, according to Central Bank statistics. To this, another 8% with no schooling whatsoever must be added. The total of 54.4% of the workforce is amazing. The reality has negative implications with regards to productivity at a time when the Dominican industries will be entering the opening phase of the free trade agreement.
Concerning the Industrial Free Zones, the implications were measured in the study “Caribbean Rim: Costa Rica, Dominican Republic and Jamaica.” The study was carried out by the Program of Cooperation for the Local Economic Development and Employment (LEED) of the OCDEE nations. The result of the study was that it pointed out that the productivity of local workers in this sector was between 60% and 80% of that registered by workers in the home countries of the foreign investors, and the cause was the low education level. President Fernandez pointed this out last week when he said, quite bluntly: “Only education will save this country.”
The good news is that things are getting better. Between 1996 and 2002, the figures hovered around 57% of the employed population. University graduates increased from 12/% in 1996 to 18% in 2004.
The trend among women is also positive in that only 37.1% of the women have just a primary education, compared to 51% of the men. However, women with university degrees have a higher unemployment rate than men 19.6%, versus just 10.6%