La Paz, Oct. 17 (teleSUR-RHC) School came to a close earlier than normal for millions of students in Bolivia on Friday – and students left with a little more money in their pocket.

Every year, the state of Bolivia pays those who stay in school $30. More than 2 million students benefit from the annual giveaway, which is credited with steadily reducing the South American country’s dropout rate.

The giveaways are funded by profits generated from 13 state companies. This year alone almost $65 million was raised for students across the country.
    
Bolivian President Evo Morales personally handed out some of the cash to pupils in the city of Sucre. Morales said that in some countries a “crisis in capitalism” meant social programs such as this were being scaled back. The opposite, he said, is happening in Bolivia.

“Bolivia continues to grow,” Morales told students. “Bolivia is no longer a state beggar as before. It’s a state respected throughout the world.”

Government statistics show the program is working. In the nine years since it was first introduced, the government has succeeded in reducing the school dropout rate in primary schools from 5.27 percent to 1.71 percent. As for secondary schools: the rate has been almost cut in half from a high of 8 percent in 2006 to 4.4 percent this year.