Minister of Education denies crisis over school spots and reaffirms commitment to the Dominican student body
The head of the Ministry of Education, Luis Miguel De Camps, has addressed the claims linking the shortage of spots in public schools to the enrollment of foreign students. During the official opening ceremony of the 2026-2027 school year, held at the Espejo La Milagrosa Basic School, the official described such allegations as false and unfounded.
That is not true, that is false. Everywhere, Dominican education is for Dominican citizens first.
Luis Miguel De Camps, Minister of Education
De Camps emphasized that the national education system has as its absolute priority to guarantee the access of Dominican students to classrooms, a position that, he assured, is shared by various sectors of the educational community, including the Dominican Association of Teachers (ADP).
Strategies for high enrollment demand
Prior to the start of the school year, educational authorities identified 19 school districts with significant enrollment pressure, affecting approximately 106,000 students who needed to be placed in educational centers. To mitigate this situation, the Ministry of Education has deployed a series of operational measures:
- Strategic relocation of students to nearby centers.
- Installation of modular classrooms to expand installed capacity.
- Optimization of the school transportation system to facilitate access.
- Implementation of agreements with private schools, with the State covering enrollment costs for those students who cannot find a spot in the public sector.
A school year with more than 2.6 million students
The Dominican educational system formally began its activities this Monday with a projected national enrollment of 2,686,971 students. Of this total, more than 2.08 million are part of the public sector, a figure that represents the main management challenge for the current 2026-2027 academic period.
The Ministry of Education reaffirms that its central objective is to ensure that every student can carry out their academic calendar normally, maintaining constant supervision in areas of high student population density.
