Starting this month, the Dominican government will grant 5,500 scholarships for superior technical level, graduate level and postgraduate courses in the country, and another 2,500 scholarships to study abroad. The information was reported by Education public servants during a meeting with President Danilo Medina, in which the advances and challenges of the government’s program were analyzed.

“Superior education is a major opportunity for low income families to leave poverty. Therefore, entities of the government and the private sector have been working together to identify the careers that are most demanded by the labour market, in order to improve young people’s employability”, explained the Minister of the Presidency, Gustavo Montalvo.

The 5,500 scholarships are part of a goal that includes 20,000 scholarships, which, together with another 20,000 scholarships to train teachers, mean that around 40,000 students will be benefited by 2020.

As regards the scholarships to study abroad, 2,500 will be delivered this year for PhDs and areas of particular importance for the productive development and institutional reinforcement of the State.

In addition, the English Program has benefited around 20,628 students this year, who attended classes in 92 centres located in every Dominican province.

As regards the goal of quality certification, an experts’ commission was developed to make a proposition on the National System for Quality Certification, which shall be approved by the National Council of Superior Education, Science and Technology (CONESCYT).

“The focus in this period is set on quality. Talking about quality in the education system is talking about excellent teachers, who enable a true education revolution in every classroom in the country”, said Montalvo.