8th graders’ 20% failure rate fuels demand for more education funding

Santo Domingo.- The number of students who passed the national standardized tests for 8th grade this year fell 5% percentage points, a figure which fuels the demand for compliance with the allocation of 4% of the GDP for education.

Of a total of 144,000 who took the test in the first round, 115, 656 passed it, or 80%.

Last year (2010-2011) 122,360 eighth grade students passed in the first call, or 85% of the total, according to Education Ministry statistics.

The 20% of the students which failed this year equal 28,914 students, who’ll have to be retested July 31 to August 3.

Education Ministry Quality Assessment director Ancell Scheker said math and social sciences were the subjects in which the highest number of the 8th graders failed.