“Even if we have to put them in the corridors or under a tree, or in a rented house, all five-year old children must register for school this year” said education minister of the Dominican Republic, Alejandrina Germán in Dominican Today.

She said that the government is committed to enrolling all children as part of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals, which state that all countries should achieve universal primary education by 2015.

She said that she hoped that all parents would send their children to school on August 21st because the ministry of education had made efforts to ensure that schools were ready to receive them.

“We have invested 239 million pesos in minor repairs, doors, windows, electrical installations, toilets and improving conditions in educational centers”, she said.

Total enrollment is just part of achieving the Goal. The country’s education system also needs to deals with problems of repetition and drop-outs, to have children complete their primary schooling.