[DR1] Dominican education is woeful

[NewsWhore]

The same World Bank report that suggested new taxes for the wealthy, also criticized the Dominican educational system as being highly deficient, particularly with regards to student retention and orderly progress through the grades. The Dominican track record is vastly inferior to the majority of Latin America with regards to its ability to translate the huge demand for education into adequate schools and the training needed for the labor market. The WB-IDB report says that the deficiency is reflected in the large number of students who repeat years. It states that the greatest challenge for the country is to understand and respond to the causes for repeating and the slow school progress. The country has "one of the worst levels of student retention and progress through the grades." As an example the reports shows that at nine years of age, the average student has been in school for 3.7 years but has accomplished only 2.2 years of school work. At 18 years of age, they have been in school for 11.5 years and only have 8.4 years of schooling. The study also points out that there is a very low return on investment in education and only a university education is reimbursed, but at a lower scale than the average for Latin America. A family that invests only in primary and secondary education will earn salaries that are among the lowest in the area. Primary education will, in rural areas, earn a little more than no schooling. In the cities, twelve years of education will earn 60% more than a lack of schooling. A university degree will earn 50% more than the high school degree. However, these salaries are well below the Latin American average.

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