Introduction
It is common knowledge that if you want to measure the level of development of a country you cannot afford to overlook development in its education system. The Dominican Republic is one country whose education system has grown in leaps and bounds and especially in the period after 1985. With education having been declared a basic human right in the 1948 universal declaration of human rights, this country has done well to offer free primary education to children between the ages 5 and 14. While the introduction of free primary school education was seen as a noble idea that would increase the country’s literacy rates, the facilitation of this program has been less than impressive. This was particularly so due to overstretching of the limited educational amenities. The lack of sufficient numbers of trained teachers to handle the increasing students has been seen as the greatest drawback in the success of this program. Consequently, most parents who could afford private school education for their children moved them to the upcoming private schools in droves. This paper seeks to show that free primary education in the Dominican Republic has only served to maximize profits for private school enterprises as well as to illustrate other underlying factors that could have led to the boom in private schools in the country.
Background
The economic growth in the Dominican Republic between 1970 and 1985 saw a parallel rise in primary school enrollment rates. By 1981 enrollment had risen to 81% up from 62% in 1970 (Bellas n.p). By this time, 87% of primary school students were in public schools. This trend was however immensely affected by the 1990s political and socio-economic crisis which saw government expenditure on education drop from 2.8% to 0.97% of the gross domestic product; GDP (Alvarez n.p). Effectively, cuts were made on teacher’s salaries and this period also saw the maintenance of education facilities together with provision of supplies being abandoned. This led to a deterioration in public primary school education. By 2003, there were over 2000 private primary schools in the country (SEE n.p) attracting 20% of the students who enrolled for primary school education. Figures from the capital city, Santo Domingo reveal that currently over 72% of primary schools are privately owned and they attract upwards of 50% of the total enrollment.
The growth of private schools
The primary cause of the proliferation of private schools was the deterioration of education being offered at public schools (Murray n.p, Flores n.p). According to Murray, the instability in both the political and socio-economic sectors following the fall of dictatorship rule in the early 1990s impacted negatively on the education facilities with internal wrangles presenting in public schools. As a result, people from both the upper and middle classes decided to seek alternatives when it came to education and this presented as private schooling. The educational situation in the country was so dire that even families in the low-income category squeezed their meager resources to facilitate their children’s education in private schools. Flores also supports the notion that the growth of private schools was due to deterioration of public school education. However, he argues that the fall in public school education was brought about by the drop in the education budget together with increased rural to urban migration. In 1960, the urban population stood at 40% and had grown to 60% by the year 1990. This growth in urban population did not however see a corresponding growth in either the sizes or the number of public education facilities. The demand for schooling had grown but the government did not respond appropriately to meet this demand.
Another factor that contributed to private schools easily taking over public schools was the lack of legislation. There were no mechanisms to establish either the number or the ownership of the private schools started around the country (Bellas n.p). As a result, anyone with the will and financial means could establish a school and count on the deterioration of public school education to provide him with students.
How are private schools different from public schools?
Financing
This is arguably the major distinguishing factor between private and public schools. While public schools are entirely funded by the government and donors by extension, private schools are funded by tuition fees paid by the students (Levy n.p). In the Dominican Republic, public schools receive exclusive funding from the government. However, over time and because of the need to do so, parents have had to make contributions to the running of schools even though this is prohibited by the state. In some instances nongovernmental organizations through their community outreach programs have contributed towards the schools’ expenditure.
Private schools on the other hand do not receive any direct funding from the state. As a matter of fact, they do not even receive indirect funding in form of subsidies or tax waivers and they therefore rely exclusively on tuition to meet their expenses. However, the owners of these institutions have learnt to beat the system by registering as not-for-profit organizations hence receiving exemption from tax paying. The fact that private schools in this country are funded exclusively by tuition levies shows how pure this sector is free from government interference (James 359-375).
Administration
In the Dominican Republic the administration of schools has led to the establishment of three classification groups for schools. Two of these relate to public school administration while the third is basically a representative of private schools.
Public schools
- The public schools governed by the Secretaria de Estado de Educacion (SEE) are under government regulation. The SEE is tasked with the role of guiding and controlling all affairs of the schools including hiring of staff, maintenance of facilities and developing curricular.
- Some public schools are administered by private bodies such as churches. These types of schools receive the same regulation as public schools run by the SEE but the principal and directors are appointed by the organization that serves the administration. The schools’, maintenance, pay of teachers and provision of learning material are catered for by the state with some contribution from the organizations that have volunteered administrative services
Private schools
These institutions are owned by individuals or organizations that are not part of the state. They make all managerial decisions independent of the government and they get their funding from school fees.
Mission
It is obvious that schools are essentially supposed to serve the role of education provision. However, an in-depth comparison of the quality of services offered shows a major disparity. Public schools aim at ensuring that each and every individual gets some basic schooling. While initially the aspect of quality education provision received some significant consideration, over time and with the limitations that have been discussed earlier in this paper the public schools have had to forego the aspect of quality and instead focus on general provision of education.
Private schools on the other hand are generally advantaged especially in terms of funding. By charging tuition fees, they are able to appropriately meet their financial needs and can therefore focus attention on provision of excellence when it comes to academic work. By their independence from the government, they are able to come up with tailor-made curricular and syllabi which can easily encompass technology in ensuring that a certain level of quality is maintained. In the long run, the expenses incurred in acquiring private school education are seen as worthwhile (Jimenez, et al. 393-410).
Theories
Several theories have been advanced to explain the rise in the number of private schools in the Dominican Republic.
Theories based on demand: Economic laws suggest that the more demand for a particular product or service is not met, the more individuals will come up with an alternative that offers the same benefits but at some extra cost. The increase in the number of private schools was a result of the demand for education that was not met by public establishments. Individuals were willing to incur the extra cost involved in private schools because the returns were better in terms of superior education quality; a fact revealed by the large number of students who left these institutions to join higher education facilities (James 359-375).
Theories based on supply: These theories illustrate that the increase in private schools was a result of enterprising individuals coming up with ways to meet demand. As a result of a shortage in supply of educational services, individual organizations set out to offer the required services and maybe even better provided they made profit out of the situation.
Anthropological point of views: Studies have revealed that in the Dominican Republic, culture tends to be heavily influenced by commercialization. Individuals want to establish their independence economically by starting their own businesses. The private school entrepreneurs were more likely attracted to the idea of making money out of the shortage of educational facilities than by the need to offer services that could serve the social good of the community.
Theory of Partnership: The partnership theory demands that the government and private enterprises grow hand in hand. This came to play in the Dominican Republic where the government offered subsidies and tax incentives to not-for-profit organizations. This saw a rise in private educational facilities. The private sector also contributed to the public schools by offering administrative services. However, these were not sufficient enough to make the public schools compete effectively in service provision and therefore the scales ended up tipping in favor of the private schools.
Social origins theory: This theory was proposed in 1998 and mainly assessed the growth of non profit organizations. It suggested that the rise in these private establishments was dependent on social aspects like class and not on unmet demand for service by public establishments. The scholars who fronted this theory proposed that private enterprises will always be established whenever the social elite want to ascertain their independence from lower social groupings. Unfortunately, developing countries much like their developed counterparts always have these social distinctions that only serve to propagate the agenda of the few financially- mighty and trample upon the dreams of the poor majority (Anheier, Salomon n.p).
Counter argument
While it may appear like the degradation in public primary school education is the only cause of the proliferation of private schools, a closer look reveals that there are certain underlying factors that have contributed to this growth but have hitherto been ignored by most scholars.
Social class distinction: In any society, people belonging to a higher socio-economic class would like to maintain the status quo. In the 1960s and 1970s the Dominican Republic government was committed to ensure that education was available for all. However, once the political and socio economic crisis hit the country, the state all together abandoned its responsibility to the education sector. As a result, individuals belonging to higher economic status saw this as a welcome opportunity to leave the public institutions and form private ones that catered for their educational needs as well as promoting the distinction between them and low income individuals.
Politics in academic institutions: After the dictatorship regime was overthrown, politics infiltrated the ranks and found its way into educational institutions. Political parties demanded to be allowed to manage educational facilities and as a result teachers were employed on basis of their loyalty to particular political factions. This led to an increase in the number of teachers who had not acquired basic accreditation being allowed to teach in public schools. Promotions also became dependent on this political loyalty. Teachers who were qualified but could not get promotions because of their political subscription became de-motivated and ended up skipping classes as well as offering low quality services.
Economic factors: Business people are constantly devising new ways to make money. Normally they just depend on shortages in certain areas to create demand for their services before they set up establishments that would cater for this lack and at the same time make some easy profit. The education department has not been immune to this infringement and this might have been a major factor in the rise of private schools in the Dominican Republic. Due to the increase in urban population in the 1980s and early 1990s there was an increase in demand for education; a demand which public facilities could not take care of. As a result individuals decided to capitalize on this shortage by starting independent institutions that would charge for services provided. This saw a rise in the number of private schools, most of which could only take a limited number of students due to the financial constraints implied. However, with time and with parents from low-income households noticing that their children were not heading anywhere with the education they were receiving in public schools, sacrifices had to be made. This saw parents working three jobs a day to ensure that their offspring received the quality education being offered in private schools.
Religious involvement: The Catholic Church has expanded its influence over most parts of the Dominion Republic. Religious institutions are however constantly trying to win converts and the Catholic Church has had to devise ways to counter the encroachment into its turf by other Christian denominations and other religions such as Islam. One of these ways was the use of educational facilities. The church started private schools charging very little or nothing at all in terms of tuition fees. However, they made sure that one of the entry requirements to these institutions was that individuals subscribed to the catholic faith. Most people saw this as an easy way of obtaining quality education and consequently flocked into these mission schools. The consequence was predictable; public schools lost their best students to scholarships being offered by these Christian schools and the few academically weak students that were left in public schools only served to tarnish the name of their institutions due to their lackluster performance.
Conclusion
The Dominican Republic’s education sector has seen unchallenged growth in private schools. This has been majorly a result of the deterioration of the educational services offered by public schools. The rapid decline of public institutions of education has been attributed to a number of political and socio-economic factors presenting as lack of investment, poor learning conditions and internal wrangles among the staff.
This paper has analyzed various reasons for the growth in private schools and has served to dispel the belief that it is only the incapability of public institutions to meet demand for education that has led to this growth in private establishments. To this end the paper has revealed that social class distinction could easily have started the break away schools that were founded in order to meet the need for social distinction by the social elite. This paper has also factored in the aspect of economic desires by individuals who started the private schools for their economic gains as well as the religious influence especially by the Catholic Church in its quest to attract followers. Differences between private and public schools have also been highlighted and they have been seen to include differences in how they finance their day to day running
costs. It has been revealed that private schools depend on tuition funds for their financing while public schools are exclusively funded by the government and donors by extension. In terms of administration, it has been detailed that public schools are run either by the government or by private groups working in tandem with the government. As far as the mission and vision is concerned, it has been shown that as much as public schools are supposed to be concerned about the quality of education that they give their students, the lack of infrastructure forces them to ignore this aspect and focus on just giving out basic education. Private schools don’t have issues with infrastructure and therefore can dedicate a lot of time to provision of quality education. Private schools are independent of the government in terms of administration.
In the end, this paper has served its purpose of showing that the popularization of private schools has mainly been influenced by deplorable services offered by public schools. It has also concluded that there are other factors that have contributed to disparity in terms of service provision between public and private schools.
References
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