Announcement of Four Million Dollars IDA Credit to the Dominican Republic for Education on November 25, 1970

\'I\'.,. H I. u t• ,It~, i '?' >, .INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT ASSOCIATION (,~) 1818 H STREET, N.W .. WASHINGTON D. C. 20433 TELEPHONE: EXECUTIVE 3-6360 IDA Press Release No. 70/54 Subject: $4 million IDA credit to the November 25, 1970 Dominican Republic for education The International Development Association (IDA) has approved a credit equiva- lent to $4 million to the Dominican Republic to assist the Government in carrying out a reform of the educational system which has as its iIIDDediate objectives improve- ment in the quality and content of secondary education and expansion and improvement of primary teacher training. The population of the Dominican Republic has doubled in the past 20 years making it one of the most densely populated countries of the Western Hemisphere. With 47% of the population under 15 years of age, the demand for school places is • high. The Government intends to improve the quality of its educational system and to orient it more directly toward meeting the manpower requirements of the economy. As a first step, it is expanding and upgrading primary teacher training and making important changes in secondary education. Secondary education will now take the form of a four-year general program fol- lowed by a two-year program emphasizing prevocational education in industrial arts, commerce and home economics. The project being assisted by the IDA credit includes the establishment of three new lower secondary schools to be located at Santo Domingo, Barahona and Bonao and the equipping of three existing schools in Santiago, La Romana and Puerto Plata, with a combined enrollment of 5,360. There will be six new multilateral upper secondary schools located in the six cities with a combined enrollment of 4,560. They will be fed by the project schools in the same towns and other lower secondary schools in the region. Each school will have courses in • industrial, commercial, home economics and nursing, as well as academic subjects. The practical courses will prepare graduates for direct employment. /more  IDA P.R. No. 70/54 - Dominican Republic-Education - 2 - With the rapia expansion of primary education in recent years, an acute short- ~ age of qualified teachers has developed,. The project includes the construction of two n.ew primary teacher training colleges and the expansion of three more. When completed each college will enroll 400 students in a two-year course and will grad- uate about 190 new teachers annually, a combined total of 950 compared to the present annual output of 160. From 1975 onward, the project colleges will satisfy about 85% of the annual needs for primary teachers. They will also offer upgrading summer courses to about 800 in-service teachers annually. In order to assist the Dominican Republic in drawing up a comprehensive long- term educational plan and improve the efficiency of its educational institutions, the IDA credit will finance the cost of specialists I services and fellowship train·- ing abroad. A 3-man group will assist the Government in formulating its strategy on such issues as education objectives, enrollment targets, structure of the system, central administration and economic and financial problems. teacher colleges. Another seven specialists will help to introduce the new curriculum in secondary schools and Eight Dominicans assigned to the project schools will take train- • ing abroad for one year in technical education and teacher training. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco) assisted the Government in the preparation of the project under the Bank/Unesco Cooperative Program. The project is scheduled for completion in mid-1975 at a total cost estimated at the equivalent of $8.1 million. The IDA credit of $4 mil- lion will cc~ver the foreign exchange requirements, and the Government of the Dominican Republic will finance the remaining capital costs as well as annual recurrent costs of the project schools estimated at the equivalent of $2.1 million. The IDA credit will be for a term of 50 years, including 10 years of grace. • It will be interest-free, but will include a service charge of 3/4 of 1%. - 0 -