NewsWhore
04-30-2009, 03:10 PM
Despite the Central Electoral Board's (JCE) best efforts to provide birth certificates for undocumented schoolchildren, the number of students who entered school without the document this year is set at 35,000, according to the Ministry of Education (SEE). At present, the education system has nearly three million students.
According to a 2006 census by the SEE, 17,900 boys, girls and young people did not have birth certificates at the time.
Minister of Education Melanio Paredes said yesterday that a system has been set up to collect the data from the schools. In the process, it was discovered that about 67% of students have their documents in order, while 33% are going through a process of cleaning up.
The minister told reporters that, "within one or two months we will know which students were registered without documents and the reasons and we can then pass on the information to the JCE and organize the operations needed to document these children".
Meanwhile JCE president Julio Cesar Castanos Guzman warned yesterday about the possibility of creating "a nation without documents." He said that a large number of Haitian children do not have birth certificates, a problem that "will explode with the force of an atomic bomb" if a solution is not found.
One of the problems at issue is that most Haitian immigrants do not have documentation themselves, creating difficulties in their applying for either Haitian or Dominican citizenship for their children.
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#10)
According to a 2006 census by the SEE, 17,900 boys, girls and young people did not have birth certificates at the time.
Minister of Education Melanio Paredes said yesterday that a system has been set up to collect the data from the schools. In the process, it was discovered that about 67% of students have their documents in order, while 33% are going through a process of cleaning up.
The minister told reporters that, "within one or two months we will know which students were registered without documents and the reasons and we can then pass on the information to the JCE and organize the operations needed to document these children".
Meanwhile JCE president Julio Cesar Castanos Guzman warned yesterday about the possibility of creating "a nation without documents." He said that a large number of Haitian children do not have birth certificates, a problem that "will explode with the force of an atomic bomb" if a solution is not found.
One of the problems at issue is that most Haitian immigrants do not have documentation themselves, creating difficulties in their applying for either Haitian or Dominican citizenship for their children.
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#10)