EDUCATION-LATAM: Primary Schools Languish Except in Cuba

By Emad Mekay Reprint | | Print |

Emad Mekay

WASHINGTON, Dec 15 2001 (IPS) - Primary education in Latin American countries remains in crisis except in Cuba, which stands out as the best performer despite long years of economic hardship, according to a report released Friday.

The document, “Lagging Behind: A Report Card on Education in Latin America”, said poor primary schooling is a major hurdle to economic growth and is exacerbating income inequalities that already are among the worst highest in the world.

“The title tells it all in one sentence,” Jeffrey M. Puryear, co- director of the Washington-based Partnership for Educational Revitalisation in the Americas (PREAL), one the report’s sponsors, told IPS. “They are lagging behind. They are not doing what they need to do.”

“Education has become Latin America’s Achilles’ heel,” added Enrique Iglesias, president of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), which took part in compiling the report.

“Just as Latin America has fundamentally remade its economic systems, it now needs to fundamentally remake its education systems,” the document stated. “Anything less will make economic growth and social development much harder to achieve.”

The 60-page study, co-sponsored by the Inter-American Dialogue, a Washington-based forum for business, academic, and political leaders, gave the region only one positive grade, a B on an A-to-F scale, for progress in expanding enrolment, particularly at pre- school and primary level.

However, it said, “quality remains low, inequality remains high, and few schools are accountable to the parents and communities they serve.”

As a result, most Latin American nations compare poorly to those elsewhere in terms of student performance and most “still do not participate regularly in global achievement tests,” the report said.

Between one-fourth and half of students drop out before reaching the fifth grade in many countries. By contrast, nearly all students who enter primary school in Egypt, China, and East Asia reach grade five. In Latin America, only Cuba, Uruguay, and Chile have comparable completion rates, the report said.

The problem is compounded by inequity in access to schooling, with chidden from well-off families receiving more and much better schooling.

Indigenous peoples and Afro-Latin Americans were found to be especially disadvantaged. In Argentina, Bolivia and Uruguay the rural population, which is usually the most deprived sector, were left out.

The report gave Latin America a “C” for investment in education. Although governments have increased the percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) dedicated to education, investment per student remains low and concentrated in higher education.

Latin American governments currently invest an average of 4.6 percent of GDP each year on education- above the average of 3.9 percent for developing countries as a whole. On the surface of it, this exceeds that of countries in Eastern and Southern Asia and is not far below the 5.1 percent outlay in industrial countries.

“However, these figures are somewhat deceiving because they do not take into account population numbers or age distribution,” the report said.

It singled out Cuba as topping virtually all other poor countries in several aspects of education. In a region-wide achievement test developed by the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, Cuba left the rest of the region in the dust in terms of third and fourth grade mathematics and language achievement.

Even the lowest fourth of Cuban students performed above the regional average. Only the highest scoring students from other Latin American countries matched the achievement of students in the lowest two quartiles in Cuba – a difference typically found between rich and poor countries.

This was despite decades under a U.S. trade embargo and just over ten years without the Soviet aid and trade on which Cuba once relied for its lifeblood.

In April, the World Bank commended Cuba for its performance on social indicators including education. The Bank said that net primary enrolment for both girls and boys reached 100 percent in 1997, up from 92 percent in 1990. This was higher even than the U.S. rate.

Public spending on education in Cuba amounts to about 6.7 percent of national income, nearly twice the proportion in other Latin America and Caribbean countries and even Singapore, the Bank said.

There were 12 primary pupils for every Cuban teacher in 1997, a ratio that ranked with Sweden. The Latin American and East Asian average, by contrast, stood at 25-to-one.

Friday’s report urged Latin American countries to set standards for the education system and measure progress toward meeting them and to give schools and local communities more control over and responsibility for education.

The report also called on the region to invest more money per student in pre-school, primary, and secondary education and to strengthen the teaching profession by raising salaries and reforming training.

Last month, the IDB said that poor education was among the bottlenecks to improved Latin American competitiveness. It suggested that Latin American governments adopt polices that reward poor families for keeping their children in school. The Bank also urged the governments to distribute funds according to school performance.

It further argued the necessity of giving subsides to people who complete certain educational levels.

Puryear said that although much needs to be done he senses a sense of urgency among politicians, the business community, and media in Latin America. “Everybody is talking about it now,” he said of education. “Many of them have made very strong statements on the issue.”