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Education is key to a country's economic and political future.
As globalization and technological change increase demand
for highly trained workers, an educated populace is essential
to economic competitiveness. Well-informed voters also hold
their governments accountable for their actions and can serve
as a force for democracy. But after more than a decade of
market-oriented reforms, low levels of education remain an
obstacle to economic and political development in much of
Latin America and the Caribbean.
According to the Inter-American Development
Bank (IDB), the region has made considerable progress toward
reducing illiteracy rates, improving gender equality and expanding
access to primary education. Yet the average level of education
attained in Latin America and the Caribbean has not improved
much in the last 20 years. Citizens of the region average
only 8.5 years of schooling, well below the average for most
industrialized countries. In many cases, economic necessity
forces young people to leave school and join the work force,
perpetuating a vicious cycle of low education rates and poverty.
The IDB's annual report on Economic and Social
Progress in Latin America (2000) suggests that demographic
change is creating a window of opportunity to improve the
quality and reach of public education in the region. According
to the report, Latin America is experiencing a demographic
transition in which young adults just beginning their productive
years represent the largest segment of the population. As
a result, the school-age population is declining, while the
potential tax base to finance human capital investment is
widening. The IDB identifies three main challenges for education
policy makers: flexibility to respond to changing demands;
diversity to provide education to heterogeneous age groups;
and efficiency to make better use of public and private resources.
Meeting these challenges will involve redefining the government's
role in education and creating new organizational models that
give a greater voice to parents and teachers and allow schools
to operate more autonomously.
The Final Declaration of the Quebec City Summit
of the Americas acknowledges that "progress towards more
democratic societies, growing economies and social equity
relies on an educated citizenry and a skilled labor force."
The participating heads of state pledged to improve teacher
training, civic education and access to information technology,
stating their belief that "improved education policies
and increased investment in our education systems will help
reduce income disparities and close the digital divide in
our Hemisphere."
The Summit Plan of Action calls for ensuring
universal access to and completion of quality primary education
for all children by 2010. The participating countries aim
to increase secondary school coverage to at least 75% by this
date, and to eliminate gender disparities in education by
2005. To further these and other goals, the Plan of Action
calls for the Organization of American States to organize
a meeting of the hemisphere's ministers of education by the
end of 2001. Uruguay has offered to be the host. Follow up
will also continue on the Indicators of the Americas Project
proposed at the 1998 Santiago Summit. This initiative, which
is being directed by UNESCO's Regional Office for Latin America
and the Caribbean, will compile a basic set of education indicators,
offering technical assistance when necessary and publishing
the data for use in educational policy decision making.
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