Quote:
Originally Posted by MikeFisher
no Bob, in my opinion it is not been going downwards during 8years under Lenonel.
Mike
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I think he was talking to me.
And I'd have to disagree with you on that.
World Bank
EdStats
If you choose the DR from the drop down menu you can see enrollment rates through 2006 and a variety of other factors.
Also, if you follow the DR1 news (check archives or just search for keywords in your own email) you see study after study showing alarming rates of under-performance. Add to that the cuts (yes, cuts) in the education budget (as well as several other ministries) to fund the metro over the past few years and it's hard to speculate that things have gotten better.
In addition, my own personal experiences over the past 6 years with the secretaria de educacion have been telling. Staffs have been cut and when they come to visit schools the first things they do is hand you a receipt for their taxi fare. If the people who control the purse strings cannot cover their own expenses it's reasonable to assume even less is getting to the schools (the majority of which are spread out around the country in poor areas).
Here's some more info from UNESCO. Enrollment rates are down according to them too. If that's the case I don;t see how things could be better.
UNESCO Institute for Statistics
This is a sloppy reply because my inversor is dying, but I wanted to at least get some data to you.
Honestly, when we take into consideration that food prices are at an all time high and the impact of crude oil over the past year it's not easy to see how citizens of a perpetually mismanaged developing country are worse off.
Sure, Leonel likes to tout macro numbers and increases in GDP, but that can and poverty can still increase (Pretty sure Cobraboy will weigh on on some of this.)
I think we can all agree that reliable statistics on pretty much anything in the DR are very tough to find. The WB, IMF, UN etc do their best but the "gubmint" itself isn't of much help. Millions are without birth records for starters and if you saw the pic in Diario Libre last week (could not find it on the web) of the storage room at the camara de cuentas (charged with government oversight) it's not hard to see why.
So, to answer your original question, it's based on fact AND opinion (based on experience). Could you publish my post in a peer reviewed journal on those grounds - no.
Again, sorry for the sloppiness and typos but I'm about to "go dark!"
RHM