Dominican Republic School Systems
I chose to write about The Dominican Republic because it has a lot of meaning to me. I visit The Dominican Republic every year with my family. I first went to The Dominican Republic when I was in 9th grade with my best friend and her family. Her family originated there and it was where she was born, when she was ten she moved to the United States. Growing up I heard about where her family came from and this amazing country that meant so much to my friend. I never knew that it was a third world country until I went there and saw how families lived and the conditions people were in. After I went with her family I went with my family and stayed at a hotel. The life the hotel betrays is very different than the life the people of the Dominican Republic lead. The nation did not enjoy full independence until 1844, when it emerged from twenty-two years of occupation by Haiti; this liberation came later than that of most Latin American countries. (Haggerty). The Dominican Republic has faced many hardships and continues to come out being an independent country. “It has been estimated that the country's total population in mid-1990 will total slightly more than 7 million. Growth had been high since official census taking began in 1920. The rate peaked during the 1950s at 3.6 percent per year. During the 1960s and the 1970s, the population grew at 2.9 percent annually; by the mid-1980s, the rate was thought to be roughly 2.5 percent.” (Haggerty). In the past four decades the birth rate has severely decreased due to woman using contraceptives, because the population is so large in the Dominican Republic there is a high need for education. Education is the most important building blocks in every person’s life, without education you cannot get a real career and build a life. Although the Dominican Republic has school districts their schools are not as sufficient as they are in America. For the Dominican Republic “Formal education included the primary, the secondary, and