Education in the Dominican Republic

Facts about National Education
As one may imagine, the educational system of the Dominican Republic is very different from the United States. Public school classrooms are typically overcrowded and under-funded, even with students attending school only 3 or 4 hours a day. School is frequently cancelled due to a variety of factors, and only a minority graduate from high school. Here are a few other facts:
· 80% of Dominican students do not make it past the 5th grade.
· 85% of poor Dominican parents have never completed primary education.
· An estimated 11% of all Dominican children under the age of five suffer from chronic malnutrition and among rural children the percentage raises to 16.5%
· Early childhood education currently consumes only .06% of the national education budget.
· The Dominican Republic’s public investment in education is 1.2% of their Gross Domestic Product
· 40% of 14-17 year olds still attend primary school.
· Only 2.2% of Dominican 4th graders were able to reach at least 75% of standards in Math and English for their grade level.
· The child of a mother with no education has only a 28% likelihood of attending school, but that raises to 71% if the mother has completed high school or better.
· On average, a typical Dominican student in primary school receives only 2.4 hours of instruction per day.
· In reading comprehension, fifth grade students in Dominican public schools perform at the same level as third grade students in Dominican private schools.
· 60% of the high school graduates who arrive at the Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo (UASD) do not have the minimum conditions to enter into a program of higher learning.
· 59% of high-school age youth are not in high school