Description

EDUCDO indicates the person's educational attainment in the Dominican Republic in terms of the level of schooling completed.

Comparability — General

The changes in the Dominican Republic's education system structure are reflected in the coding for educational attainment:

• Before the 1970s, the structure was 6-2-4, with 6 years of primary, 2 years of intermediate, and 4 years of secondary.
• In the 1970s, education was reformed to a 6-4-2 structure, with 6 years of primary, 4 years of a basic cycle (secondary), and 2 years of a higher cycle or specialization (secondary).
• After the 1990s, the structure was 4-4-2-2, with 8 years of a primary or basic level (divided into two cycles of 4 years each) and 4 years of a secondary level (divided into a first or common cycle of 2 years and a second cycle of 2 years with general, technical-vocational, and art options).

Pre-school education is only identified for the 1970-2010 samples.

In 1960, the primary level includes up to 7 years, and year 7 is interpreted as the first year of intermediate. In 1970, vocational studies (commercial, industrial, and teacher training) or agricultural institutes were classified as "secondary." The 1981 sample includes coding for both the 6-2-4 and the 6-4-2 education structures, where the latter is called "reformed secondary"; this sample also identifies vocational, technical, or commercial training in a separate source variable. No other samples identify the "reformed secondary" system.

In all samples the question on educational attainment asks for university or higher studies, but only in 2002 and 2010 do the instructions explicitly refer to specializations, masters, and doctorate degrees. Post-graduate degrees are separately identified in 2002. The number of years completed for university studies is top-coded at 8 years or more in 2010.

Most samples report the last year or grade completed, except for 2002 where instructions required indicating the current year or grade for those attending school and the year or grade completed for those who attended in the past.

There are some changes in the universe for this variable over time: all persons in 1960, persons age 5 or more in 1970 and 1981, and persons age 3 or more in 2002 and 2010.

A harmonized international classification of educational attainment is available in EDATTAIN, which imposes a number of compromises to regularize the data across countries. Conversely, EDUCDO retains the full detail on educational attainment for the Dominican Republic samples.

The number of years of schooling completed is available separately in YRSCHOOL.

Universe

Availability

• Dominican Republic: 1960, 1970, 1981, 2002, 2010