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Domingo Jimenez, European Union Commission ambassador Irene Horejs, Education Minister Melanio Paredes, right, in the press conference today. Photo Tommy Trenchard.
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Santo Domingo.- The European Union (EU) today announced a donation of 9.45 million euros (13.8 million dollars) to support Dominican Republic’s local education.

This payment "shows the European Union’s commitment to support the national strategy of social development, convinced that education is the driving force of sustainable development," it said in a statemet.

The funds are part of the Budgetary Support Program to the Education Sector, whose main target is to support the Education Ministry to prepare and implement its strategic educative management plan. “In this manner the EU will support education in the Dominican Republic until 2010 with a total of 67.3 million Euros.”

The new European Commission ambassador in the country, Irene Horejs, listed the goals sought with the donation. "The central role of education is quality for the future of a country in the areas of democracy, competitiveness and social cohesion. Sustainable development isn’t possible in the long term without a good public education.”

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COMMENTS
14 comment(s)
Written by: josean, 21 Oct 2009 4:07 PM
From: United States
"convinced that education is the driving force of sustainable development"

And I always thought it was more empty hotel rooms and empty METROs, who would have thought it was education eh LIE-onel Fernandez!
Written by: BASTA, 21 Oct 2009 4:31 PM
From: Dominican Republic, =Ghetto/Legalize Drugs
what a waste EU money. We need outside money to do what we should've done 30 years ago. Hellooo we do not need your money just ask liejotonelly for some of his 780,000,000.00 that he has.
Written by: ateo1992 This user is banned, 21 Oct 2009 5:03 PM
From: Dominican Republic
i hope they use the money well!
Written by: RobertoJose, 21 Oct 2009 5:28 PM
From: United States, FREEPORT, Long Island.... (Look, beyond the words)
WHY? WHY? If Leo cared about educating the public, it would have been done before the MELTRO was built. I see foreclosure in the near future for DR. Wait Chapter 7 Banckruptcy, Yeah, If Donald Trunk did it. Why not DR! Leo you HoseBag!
Written by: HiHater, 21 Oct 2009 5:32 PM
From: United States, Brooklyn, NY
I hope the E.U. also administers the money.

Yet why do foriegn countries recognize this and the DR doesn't ?
Written by: RobertoJose, 21 Oct 2009 5:55 PM
From: United States, FREEPORT, Long Island.... (Look, beyond the words)
thats close to 20 million dollars, Pssssssssss thats chump change compared to what has been spent in DR so far. 3 million dollars from every project would have solved the Education problem in DR............Leo, you crumb snatcher!
Written by: dagtan, 21 Oct 2009 6:27 PM
From: United States
I really like this, but much more is needed. The DR as a country invested (i do not consider education budget as expenditure) a meager U.S.$140 MILLION for a total of about 2 MILLION students. This comes out to about U.S.$1,400 per child which is only greatest than Haiti in the caribbean.

Written by: danny00, 21 Oct 2009 6:53 PM
From: United States, syosset, key west, santo domingo AND NOW THE GLOBE TROTTER
i wonder how much of this money is going to get to the school system?.....
Written by: JimHarrington This user is banned, 21 Oct 2009 7:29 PM
From: United States
The sad part of these donations is that the Leonel adminstration is so occupied with looking the other way of corruption that its own money never gets to the people that need it the most.

The DR has sufficint funds to move forward with its own internal revenues however these funds are drained into the private coffers of the elected officials instead of going to its intended course to the people and for the people.

Its like giving more candy to a bad child in the hopes that maybe these hippocrites will see the error of their ways.

I personally am against donating any funds to a corrupt goverment like the DR because it only leads to more corruption.
Written by: dagtan, 22 Oct 2009 11:40 AM
From: United States
Atabey, this will happen very soon, but not by EU companies. There are some American education companies (Mcgrow hill, Princeton, and others) who are setting tent in PR as the proving grounds. I have done some technology integration for the PR project via Princeton.

As I have said before, I believe that my future is in the DR since this will be revolutionary once it gets going. I'll give it another ten years and then it will be introduced, once the data is collected from the PR experimentation.

Stay tuned.
Written by: abc200, 23 Oct 2009 10:24 PM
From: United Kingdom, Dominican Republic
EU has fine World class educational programmes in the 'areas of democracy, competitiveness and social cohesion. Sustainable development isn’t possible in the long term without a good public education'
All French students for example study philosophy in terminale and civics is important earlier. Two foreign languages are common.
So very generous of the EU and a good foundation for development of the country. Hopefully Ancient Greek becomes de rigueur for Dominicans so they can study democratic ideas.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secondary_education_in_France
Written by: abc200, 23 Oct 2009 10:33 PM
From: United Kingdom, Dominican Republic
I did some work for the Open University; UK. If only ALBA could sponsor courses in Spanish via distance learning satellite - the Open Univesrsity of Malasia has gone international!
http://www.digitallearning.in/news/news-details.asp?NewsID=15082
Many American students would love distance learning in Spanish and fees might help support a regional university! Plus the new economics of socialist economies could be studied in place of the bankrupt US system!
S.
Written by: gmiller261, 28 Oct 2009 9:02 AM
From: United States

To support corruption in the Dominican education system.....................
Written by: HONEST, 30 Oct 2009 11:41 AM
From: Netherlands Antilles
keep me posted
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