New York.– President Luis Abinader and the Director-General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Khaled El-Enany, discussed this Tuesday the progress achieved by the Dominican Republic in educational matters, reflected in the Global Education Monitoring Report 2026, during a bilateral meeting held at the United Nations headquarters.
During the meeting, President Abinader and the Director-General of UNESCO also discussed the possibility of establishing an institute at the Punta Bergantín Innovation Center to promote STEM education, inspired by the model that UNESCO is developing in Shanghai.
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The initiative, which is in the discussion phase, would be aimed at promoting education in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics and strengthening training in areas considered strategic for the country’s development.
Educational advances in the Dominican Republic
The recognition comes in a context where UNESCO’s 2026 Global Education Monitoring Report records progress in the Dominican Republic regarding indicators related to educational access and completion. This year’s report is dedicated precisely to monitoring progress in access and equity with a view to achieving Sustainable Development Goal 4.
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Data shows that the Dominican Republic is better off in 2024 than in 2015: primary school completion increased from 90% to 96%; lower secondary completion from 83% to 89%, and upper secondary completion from 56% to 64%.
Furthermore, it shows that there is concrete progress and the DR surpasses several Latin American countries in upper secondary school completion. The next challenge is to continue reducing exclusion and gaps so that more and more young people complete their education.
The model taken as a reference for the initiative proposed in Punta Bergantín corresponds to the UNESCO International Institute for STEM Education (IISTEM), based in Shanghai, conceived to promote inclusive and quality education in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, as well as to foster research, innovation, knowledge exchange, and capacity building.
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At the meeting, President Abinader was accompanied by Minister Víctor -Ito- Bisonó and the Permanent Representative of the Dominican Republic to the United Nations, Ambassador Wellington Bencosme.
