Countries of the World/COUNTRYS.BIN/dp/0112/01124.txt

Text File | 1991-06-25 | 28KB | 438 lines

$Unique_ID{COW01124}
$Pretitle{254}
$Title{Dominican Republic
Chapter 6A.   Education, Cultural Life and Public Information}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Thomas E. Weil, Jan Knippers Black, Harold I. Blutstein, Kathryn T. Johnson, David S. McNorris, Frederick P. Munson}
$Affiliation{HQ, Department of the Army}
$Subject{schools
secondary
percent
primary
school
students
public
education
program
rural}
$Date{1973}
$Log{}
Country:     Dominican Republic
Book:        Dominican Republic
Author:      Thomas E. Weil, Jan Knippers Black, Harold I. Blutstein, Kathryn T. Johnson, David S. McNorris, Frederick P. Munson
Affiliation: HQ, Department of the Army
Date:        1973

Chapter 6A.   Education, Cultural Life and Public Information

     During the early 1970s the educational system was experiencing
fundamental change as well as phenomenal growth. Substantial increases in
enrollment had also occurred annually during the 1960s, but the programs of
study had undergone little change since the early 1950s and bore little
relation to the country's needs. Teachers and classrooms had been in
increasingly short supply, particularly in the countryside, where little
schooling of any sort was available beyond the first few grades of primary
school and much of the population remained illiterate. At all levels, a high
proportion of the students dropped out of school or repeated grades. The
shortcomings of public education were reflected in the progressively
increasing number of families who sent their children to schools in the small
private sector, maintained for the most part by religious orders.

     Beginning in the late 1960s substantially increased national education
budgets were reflected in a corresponding increase in the rate of school
construction. Primary and secondary enrollment maintained its fast rate of
growth, and university matriculations soared. A particularly heavy rate of
increase in the several university schools of education gave promise of an
improved future supply of secondary teachers, but the overall pace of growth
at the public university in Santo Domingo, where a large majority of all
postsecondary students was enrolled, was such that the government was
concerned. Its growth placed increasing demands on the national budget, and
many in the swollen student body appeared to be more concerned with political
activism than with learning a profession.

     In 1971 the Ministry of Education and Fine Arts commenced implementation
of a change that its architects hoped would correct the most evident
deficiencies in the educational system and make the program more responsive to
the country's needs. The secondary-level reform was designed to alleviate the
critical shortage of primary teachers by improvement and expansion of the
secondary schools for training of primary-level teachers; to bring about a
massive increase in secondary enrollments in the largely neglected
prevocational fields; and to improve the preparation of university
matriculants by broadening and modernizing the content of the academic
secondary-school program.

     Under terms of a concordat signed in 1954 by the Dominican Republic and
the Holy See, education provided by the state in public schools is guided by
the principles of Roman Catholic doctrine, and religious instruction is
generally mandatory at both primary and secondary levels. The state guarantees
to the Roman Catholic Church full liberty to establish and maintain schools of
all types and levels under ecclesiastical authority, and certificates awarded
by primary and secondary institutions of this kind-which make up the bulk of
the schools in the private sector-have the same validity as those awarded by
the corresponding state institutions.

     Although traces of French and North American influences may be found in
the country's literature, graphic arts, and formal music and African influence
is evident in its folk music, Dominican culture is basically Spanish in
origin. The value attached to hispanidad (Spanishness) was greatly reinforced
as a reaction to subjection to Haitian rule in the early nineteenth century.

     Known as the "cradle of America" in the early colonial period, the colony
was the center from which European civilization spread to the new world. It
had the first schools and convents in America, and literature, theater,
architecture, and other arts flourished. By the middle of the sixteenth
century, however, the quality and quantity of literary and artistic work had
begun to decline, never fully to recover.

     The political pattern of swinging from anarchy to tyranny, with
interludes of foreign intervention and occupation, has not provided fertile
ground for the development of intellectual and creative activities.
Nevertheless, in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, a number
of Dominican literary figures, responding to international trends-first
romanticism and later modernism-produced outstanding works. Also, a new
musical form emerged with the incorporation of the popular merengue into
serious compositions.

     During the long, harsh rule of Rafael Leonidas Trujillo Molina cultural
life experienced a serious setback. Few of the writers and artists who stayed
in the country were able to rise above the officially prescribed themes, which
generally lauded the accomplishments of Trujillo. A new literature of social
protest was initiated, however, by persons writing from exile-most notably
Juan Bosch.

     The reemergence of scholarship and the arts after the assassination of
Trujillo was halting and, like other aspects of national life, was retarded by
the civil war of 1965. Since the late 1960s, however, there has been an
attempt, especially on the part of the young, to arrive at a unique form of
national self-expression. Writers and artists have hoped that this movement,
known as "la nueva ola" (the new wave), would begin to provide the cultural
cohesion sorely needed to integrate the society. More nearly defined by mood
than by uniformity of style or content, the movement has found expression in
cultivation of folklore, political irony and statire, and paintings and murals
inspired by the civil war.

     In 1972 people throughout the country listened to radio broadcasts-the
most influential of all mass media in the republic. More than ninety
originating radio stations broadcast programs of music, news bulletins,
cultural subjects, sports news, and drama. Most of these stations were
profit-making enterprises and would sell time to political groups or parties.
Television broadcasts influenced a limited number of viewers, who generally
watched newscasts and a few special shows. A large proportion of the
television program material originated in the United States.

     The literate population was served by a number of independent daily
newspapers published in Santo Domingo and in Santiago de los Caballeros; the
total circulation of these dailies was estimated at more than 115,000. All of
these newspapers subscribed to at least one United States wire service, and
two carried United States columnists. The most widely read periodical was a
weekly news magazine, Ahora, whose circulation was estimated at about 12,000.

     Although most of the people listened to radio broadcasts and urban middle
and upper class people were influenced by newspapers, citizens of all classes
in 1972 continued to value personal contact and rumor as sources of
information and ideas. News was often introduced into villages by travelers
and itinerant merchants. Men picked up information at work, during the
evening stroll, or in coffeehouses and bars; women exchanged gossip in the
marketplace or after Sunday mass. The family structure also constituted an
important network of communication.

Education

Administration and Finance

     As organized under the 1951 Organic Law of Education, the school program
in 1972 was directed by the Ministry of Education and Fine Arts through
undersecretaries for administrative and technical services. Through the
undersecretary f