The results of UNESCO’s Second Regional Comparative and Explanatory Study (SERCE) on educational inputs and outputs in Latin America are now released and were presented in a 200+ page report in Santiago, Chile late last week.UNESCO, in collaboration with the Latin American Laboratory for the Assessment of the Quality of Education (LLECE) carried out the study over the past 4 years in 16 Latin American countries.
While the highly-anticipated report was covered in press across the hemisphere, the results may be inconclusive, as may be the major findings.
IPS reports from Santiago:
"A total of 196,040 primary school students in the third and sixth grades were assessed, from 8,854 classrooms in 3,065 urban and rural schools in 16 Latin American countries and the northeastern Mexican state of Nuevo León.
The subject areas reviewed were reading comprehension, mathematics and science, focusing on "life skills." Student performance was evaluated, as well as factors that might contribute to the differences between their scores."
... and continues to summarize the findings:
"According to the study, school ambience explains between 40 and 49 percent of the variation in students’ learning attainments, while characteristics of the students themselves explain most of the remaining difference."
"When comparing schools, the "school climate" is the major factor determining student performance, followed by the average socioeconomic and cultural level of the institution."
As usual, Cuban education comes out high on top of the rest of the hemisphere, a strong point the Castro regime has long touted. The Dominican Republic was found on the bottom rungs in the most performance areas, qualifying it as the "least successful" in the region; this week, the Dominican secretary of education made no excuses and responded with a call to arms:
"...conocer (esta) realidad nos anima a trabajar mucho más para ir acercándonos a los estándares internacionales."
It is not yet clear what education experts and other politicians will make of the report, which provides many rankings, but fails to tease out any particularly revealing trends, or suggest any significant differences amongst the majority of the participating countries. The full data set has not yet been made publicly available, either.
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"...conocer (esta) realidad nos anima a trabajar mucho más para ir acercándonos a los estándares internacionales. (Knowing this fact encourages us to work harder to move closer to international standards.)"
Alejandrina German, Dominican Republic Education Secretary
First, those “facts” are not unknown to Ms. German or Dominican president Leonel Fernández. They did a lot to point out the disastrous state of the Dominican education system when they were in the opposition and running for office in 2000. They pledged to implement the Dominican law that mandates that 4% of GDP should be invested in education.
Those promises were forgotten as soon Fernández was elected, when he decided that building a metro in Santo Domingo was what the country really needed. On average, just 2.5% of GDB has been budgeted for education during Fernández administration. I emphasize “budgeted”, not spend. Twice in the last administration, special laws were sent and approved by congress to transfer money assigned to the Education Department to Fernández cherished metro system.
Meanwhile, the poorest either don’t get to go to school or those lucky enough to have access to… err…”educational facilities” sometimes have to take classes under a three or take their own chair to classes so they won’t have to sit on the floor. Lately, an investigative journalist found out that the milk that poor children were getting in public school is not even milk and it is supplied by a company that employs one of Ms. German daughters.
Bear that in mind the next time you hear president Fernández in one of those foreign trips that he usually takes just to give a speech about the importance of a good education. His actions speak louder than his words about what is really important to him.
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