Latin American schools don't measure up

THE OPPENHEIMER REPORT
Latin American schools don't measure up
Posted on Sun, Oct. 21, 2007
BY ANDRES OPPENHEIMER
aoppenheimer@MiamiHerald.com

One of the things that struck me the most during a recent visit to India
was that amid growing competition for educa

tional excellence children have to pass rigorous admission tests
starting at kindergarten. What a difference with what's happening in
Latin America!

In many Latin American countries, there is so little emphasis on the
quality of education that you can go all the way from kindergarten to
giant state-run universities such as Mexico's National Autonomous
University or Argentina's University of Buenos Aires without ever having
to pass an admissions test.

The contrast between what's happening in India -- and most of Asia --
and Latin America came to mind as I read a World Bank report on the
quality of education in Latin America that was released last week. It's
the most devastating indictment I have ever seen on the performance of
Latin American schools.

In 1960 the percentage of people who completed high school in Latin
America was 7 percent and in East Asia about 11 percent; today the
percentages of high school completion are 18 percent in Latin America
and 44 percent in East Asia, the report says.

FALLING BEHIND

Despite the rapid rise in enrollment in Latin American schools in recent
decades, the region is falling dramatically behind the rest of the
world, including when compared with other developing or medium-income
countries, the report says.

In Latin America, governments are too focused on building schools and
too little concerned on what's happening inside them. Many countries in
the region -- including Argentina, Venezuela and Cuba -- often refuse to
give international standardized tests or refuse to make their results
public.

Consider some of the report's findings:

• In the Program for International Student Assessment, a standardized
test that measures 15-year-olds in math, language and science, Latin
American countries scored among the lowest in the world. Chinese
students in Hong Kong scored 550 points in math, 510 in language and 539
in science; South Korean students scored 542, 534 and 538, and U.S.
children scored 483, 495 and 491. However, the scores in Mexico, Brazil,
Chile, Argentina and Peru were around 400 points or below.

• Even Latin American students from the most advantaged socioeconomic
background perform badly in these tests, ''dispelling the myth that the
region's most privileged students receive a high-quality education,''
the report says.

• In the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study test,
which measures eight graders in math and science, the only two Latin
American countries that participated -- Colombia and Chile -- scored
near the bottom.

• In the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study, which tests
fourth graders in reading, the only two Latin American countries that
participated, Argentina and Colombia ranked 30th and 31st respectively
of the 35 participants.

''Educational systems have been too focused on getting children to
attend school and too little on what they are taught in school,''
Emiliana Vegas, one of the authors of the report, told me Friday.

SLOWER GROWTH

My opinion: All of this bodes badly for Latin America. In today's
knowledge-based economy, countries with lesser educational standards are
condemned to slower growth and long-term poverty.

China, India and Eastern Europe's success shows that countries with
better-educated populations produce more sophisticated goods, attract
more investment, create more jobs and reduce poverty faster.

I'm not suggesting that Latin American 3-year olds be subjected to
excruciating kindergarten admission tests. (Even India's Supreme Court
has recently set limits on that practice, arguing that it puts too much
pressure on kids too early in life.)

But, at the very least, Latin American countries should start
participating in international standardized tests to measure themselves
against the rest of the world, and then act accordingly. Otherwise,
mediocre educational standards will condemn their population to lag
increasingly behind the rest of the world.

Post script: The Latin American country whose education is going
backward most rapidly is Venezuela, where maximum leader Hugo Chávez has
announced a new curriculum aimed at helping create a Socialist new man.
While Communist China and semi-socialist India focus on math, Venezuela
will start teaching ideology.

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