{"id":519989,"date":"2026-08-06T16:51:45","date_gmt":"2026-08-06T20:51:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.net\/en\/uncategorized\/minister-rafael-santos-badia-dominican-education-is-trapped-in-the-19th-century\/"},"modified":"2026-08-06T16:51:45","modified_gmt":"2026-08-06T20:51:45","slug":"minister-rafael-santos-badia-dominican-education-is-trapped-in-the-19th-century","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/dominican-news\/minister-rafael-santos-badia-dominican-education-is-trapped-in-the-19th-century\/","title":{"rendered":"Minister Rafael Santos Bad\u00eda: \u201cDominican education is trapped in the 19th century\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>SANTO DOMINGO<\/strong> \u2013 In a revealing interview granted to the program <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@PolitikalRD\/videos\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Politikal<\/a><\/strong>, the Minister of Higher Education, Science and Technology (Mescyt), Rafael Santos Bad\u00eda, offered a critical diagnosis of the current state of academic training in the Dominican Republic. According to the official, the country is facing a generational and structural gap that hinders full economic and social development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>\u201cDominican education is trapped in the 19th century, teachers think like in the 20th century, and students are from the 21st century,\u201d<\/strong> stated Santos Bad\u00eda, summarizing what he described as a &#8220;drama&#8221; that must be transformed if the country aspires to double the size of its economy by the year 2036.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>YOU MAY ALSO BE INTERESTED IN: <a href=\"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/nacionales\/santos-badia-resalta-papel\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"682715\">Santos Bad\u00eda highlights the role of universities in the transformation of the Dominican educational system<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>A &#8220;bottom-up&#8221; reform<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The minister raised the need for a total reengineering of the educational system that begins from early childhood and extends to higher education. Among his fundamental proposals, he highlighted that the university level requires a much more pragmatic and efficient approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>&#8220;At the university level, a more abbreviated curriculum must be created&#8230; we must talk about content and relevance&#8221;<\/strong>, stated Santos Bad\u00eda, noting that current programs sometimes include irrelevant topics that students do not know how to apply in practice. Likewise, he advocated for the implementation of <strong>&#8220;micro-credentials or micro-certifications&#8221;<\/strong> for adults who, due to the fourth industrial revolution, need to update their trades quickly so as not to become unemployed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"MINISTRO DE EDUCACI\u00d3N SUPERIOR RAFAEL SANTOS DICE EDUCACI\u00d3N EST\u00c1 ATRAPADA EN EL SIGLO XIX \" width=\"1240\" height=\"698\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/o_2ZRvxSBGg?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Balance between technology and humanism<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Despite the growing demand for <strong>STEM<\/strong> (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) careers, the head of Mescyt warned that critical thinking and the humanities should not be neglected. He reported that, although the focus is 70% toward technical and scientific careers, the remaining 30% should be dedicated to <strong>&#8220;soft skills&#8221;<\/strong> and disciplines such as linguistics, history, and philosophy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>\u201cLet us not use fashion&#8230; we have to strengthen humanism, which is managing the algorithm\u201d<\/strong>, the minister explained, highlighting the importance of training citizens with cultural sensitivity and analytical capacity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Excellence scholarships and the salary challenge<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Regarding the international scholarship policy, Santos Bad\u00eda assured that priority is being given to agreements with world-class elite universities such as <strong>MIT, Harvard, the Complutense University of Madrid, and the University of Barcelona<\/strong>. However, he acknowledged that the country faces the challenge of &#8220;brain drain&#8221; due to the low salary offers that professionals encounter upon returning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>\u201cBrain drain is avoided with good salaries. A good salary is one that allows people to afford a quality life,\u201d<\/strong> he stressed, after admitting that a high-level graduate will not be attracted to positions in public administration that offer insufficient remuneration.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Finally, the minister reiterated that the goal of this &#8220;educational revolution&#8221; is to leverage the <strong>&#8220;magical revolution of knowledge&#8221;<\/strong> to accelerate national growth and offer real opportunities both to Dominicans in the territory and to the diaspora.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SANTO DOMINGO \u2013 In a revealing interview granted to the program Politikal, the Minister of Higher Education, Science and Technology (Mescyt), Rafael Santos Bad\u00eda, offered a critical diagnosis of the current state of academic training in the Dominican Republic. According to the official, the country is facing a generational and structural gap that hinders full [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":99,"featured_media":519990,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[40216],"tags":[44182,44597,15022,44582,16614,28714,44595,44596],"class_list":["post-519989","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dominican-news","tag-cover","tag-higher-education","tag-mescyt","tag-newsletter","tag-political","tag-rafael-santos-badia","tag-scholarships","tag-science-and-technology-mescyt"],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/phj1q1-2bgV","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/08\/IMG_1500.jpg","dum_api":{"author_name":"Dilenny Cespedes","author_image":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Disen\u0303o-sin-ti\u0301tulo-24-96x96.jpg","categories_name":["Dominican News"],"featured_media_url":"https:\/\/cdn.deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/08\/IMG_1500.jpg"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519989","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/99"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=519989"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519989\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/519990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=519989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=519989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=519989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}