EDUCATION-LATAM: Scholastic Achievement Scores Lag

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Yadira Ferrer

BOGOTA, Oct 4 2002 (IPS) - The performance of Latin American and Caribbean students on international math and science exams tends to be below the global average, according to a new World Bank report.

Although regional scores are higher than those of Africa, they are far below the scores of east Asia, says the report, ”Closing the Gap: Education and Technology Policies in Latin America and the Caribbean”.

The main reasons for the poor scholastic performance in Latin America are the low quality of education and insuffient coverage by the educational system, and the disconnectedness between the academic and productive sectors, say the study’s authors.

The report will be officially released on Oct 10, at the Eighth Annual World Bank Conference on Development in Latin America and the Caribbean, to be held in Madrid, Spain. It was presented at a preliminary launch in Bogota by Guillermo Perry, the World Bank’s chief economist for the Latin American and Caribbean region.

Students in Cuba and Chile, in that order, earn competitive scores on international math and science tests. But the rest of the nations of Latin America and the Caribbean ”lag far behind,” said Perry, a Colombian national.

In east Asia, the average educational achievement today is a high school diploma, as occurred in the United States in the 1950s.

The study authors analysed the evolution of educational systems in Latin America and the Caribbean, and underlined that a higher degree of integration in international networks was associated with higher levels of scholastic achievement.

They also stressed the need for a close association between academia and the productive apparatus, to define what kind of training is necessary, as occurs in the countries that stand out in the world in terms of educational level.

Some now refer to ”brain drain” as ”brain circulation”, and today, academic training is seen as a point where education and technology meet, according to the report.

”The educational system is not efficient, from an economic point of view, if it does not form part of broader networks,” said Perry.

The coordinator of the Colombian National University’s programme of research on informatics and technology for education, Francisco López, told IPS that ”Education in technology can contribute to the economic, political and cultural development of a country, as long as it is couched in a humanistic context.”

The National University is Colombia’s largest centre of higher learning, with 15,000 students, and provides high quality ”conceptual training,” despite the ”lack of resources and of exchanges with other research centres,” said López.

”Conceptual training” teaches students to think, and equips them with the capacity to tackle new problems, he added.

Students and professors from various disciplines and universities take part in López’s programme, which began in 1997, bringing together a wide range of areas, perceptions and needs.

Civil war-torn Colombia is around 20 years behind in science and technology, said López.

In fact, the country ranks second-to-last – only above Haiti – in the region in terms of public funding for research.

López said the delay of Colombian students with respect to industrialised countries was seen in their ”lack of familiarity with the concepts of new science,” which in Germany are included in high school curricula.

One of the main causes of the shortcomings in Colombia’s basic education is ”the lack of continuity of teachers’ contracts,” educator María Carvajal told IPS.

In public schools in small towns and villages in the southern department of Cauca, for example, teachers are rotated so frequently that students can have seven different educators over the course of a school year, she said.

At the other extreme, at Waldorf schools, which first emerged in Austria, ”a well-paid teacher with an established reputation accompanies a group of children, who never number more than 12, through their learning process for seven years,” said Carvajal.

Waldorf school graduates are known for achieving levels of excellence, whether as bakers or astronomists, she added.

Many rural schoolteachers in Colombia earn just 135 dollars a month, and are hired on a quarterly basis to teach groups of 30 or more students, many of whom are malnourished and trek long distances to attend class, she pointed out.

Studying basic sciences is one way to overcome the educational gap putting professionals in Latin America at a disadvantage, said José Izasa, a mathematician by training and the manager of the Compañía General Automotriz car-maker.

Today’s world requires professionals with the mental agility to understand and implement swift changes to production and marketing systems, and training in basic sciences can provide that flexibility, he wrote in an article published in the latest edition of the local weekly publication Semana.

”The study of science is addictive, and stimulates the production of endorphins,” and the satisfaction gained by solving a problem or understanding a natural phenomenon is comparable to the thrill brought by high-risk sports, he added, in an obvious attempt to spur the interest of Colombia’s young people.

EDUCATION-LATAM: Scholastic Achievement Scores Lag

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Yadira Ferrer

BOGOTA, Oct 4 2002 (IPS) - The performance of Latin American and Caribbean students on international math and science exams tends to be below the global average, according to a new World Bank report.
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