In the Dominican Republic there is a very special study modality: Prepares (Basic Education Program and Distance Baccalaureate).
And what makes it special? The program is designed so that mothers can attend classes with their baby.
One of her Esmeralda students attends classes with her youngest son. Motherhood came to him very soon and he had to leave school. Now their children are not an obstacle to their desire to overcome. As she cannot afford a babysitter she attends classes with the nursing baby on Saturdays, she herself recounts “As he is the youngest and I am breastfeeding him, to leave him at home he would have to prepare another meal. So I better bring it because it's only two months old and if I'm hungry I breastfeed even if I'm writing. ”
Esmeralda is determined to finish high school to enter the university to study languages. Like her, dozens of mothers who, due to life's circumstances, had to drop out of school, now they return to this program.
Professor Julio César Nova says that the Program contemplates that many mothers, due to the difficulties of leaving their children at home or due to work problems, sometimes take children to the classroom, although we know what that entails. ” Understand that above these small difficulties is the desire of these women to overcome, so they make the effort to work in those conditions. Going to some public schools on a Saturday in which this Adult Program is offered is to see a different picture from that seen from Monday to Friday. Well, on Saturdays there are the little ones of months and a few years of age accompanying the mothers inside the classrooms and some of the women are even in a state of gestation.
The pregnant women consulted said that they are motivated with this educational system and that even after they give birth they will continue to receive the blended classes, as these courses are called, even if they have to take the babies to school.
These Saturday programs have become the options for many teenagers who are withdrawn from regular schools for pregnancy. In recent years, many teenagers dropped out of school because of unplanned pregnancies, many of whom have preferred to continue them in these semi-presidential programs rather than leave them completely.
