Overview of Education Issues and Programs in Latin America

Overview of Education Issues and Programs
in Latin America
Clare Ribando Seelke
Analyst in Latin American Affairs
Foreign Affairs, Defense, and Trade Division
Summary
The United States has long supported education programs in Latin America, and
has a vested interest in promoting educational progress in the region. In the last 20
years, most Latin American countries have taken significant steps to improve their
education systems, but major challenges remain. Those challenges include unequal
access to education, high dropout and repetition rates, poor teacher quality, and uneven
assessments and accountability systems. Regional and bilateral education assistance
programs administered by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)
have sought to help countries address many of those challenges. At the same time, the
State Department’s Bureau of Education and Cultural Affairs (ECA) has supported
educational exchange and scholarship programs for Latin American students and
teachers. This report provides an overview of the current level of educational attainment
in Latin America, U.S. education programs in the region, and related legislative
proposals. It will not be updated.
Educational Attainment in Latin America
Recent Developments. As a whole, Latin American countries have made
significant progress in improving their education systems, particularly in the last two
decades. Governments have increased spending on education, expanded cooperation with
the United States, the World Bank, and other donors, and pledged to achieve certain
educational milestones established through the Organization of American States’ Summit
of the Americas process. Latin America is close to attaining the Millennium
Development Goal (MDG) of having universal primary enrollment by 2015, with 97% of
students enrolled in primary school. The region is also making major progress towards
ensuring that once enrolled, students complete their primary education. Improvements
in basic education have led to an average youth literacy rate of 96%, exceeding the world
average rate of 87%. The region has also achieved gender parity in literacy performance

and primary school enrollment rates. Unlike most other regions, Latin American countries
now have more girls than boys enrolled in secondary schools and universities.¹
In recent years, Latin American governments have implemented a variety of
programs to increase the supply of and demand for education in their countries, many of
which have specifically targeted disadvantaged students and school districts. In general,
the success of those programs has hinged upon the accuracy of their targeting mechanisms
in reaching the poorest, most disadvantaged students. One recent review of education
interventions in Latin America suggests that providing free textbooks and creating
classroom libraries are the most cost-effective ways to improve equity in education. Other
interventions that are thought to be effective when implemented in poor districts are in-
service teacher training programs and tutoring programs for students. Free food
distribution programs, while showing positive effects on some learning outcomes, are not
regarded as particularly cost-effective education interventions.² On the demand side,
many countries in Latin America have successfully boosted enrollments by providing
compensatory cash transfers to families in exchange for keeping their children in school.
Remaining Challenges. Despite these recent improvements, Latin America’s
education indicators still lag behind the developed world and many developing countries
of comparable income levels in East Asia. Students from Latin America tend to
underperform on international assessment tests, even when comparisons are limited to
countries with similar income levels.³ Test scores on national exams for students across
all education levels remain low, with students from rural, poor, Afro-descendant, and
indigenous households having less access to quality education than the general
population. In Brazil, nonwhite students score significantly lower than white students
from similar socioeconomic backgrounds on national tests. Across the region, indigenous
people complete fewer years of schooling than non-indigenous people and have lower
economic returns for each year of schooling completed.⁴ These gaps in access to quality
education are most pervasive in countries with high levels of income inequality.
In addition to equity issues, grade repetition and dropout rates are still high,
particularly at the secondary level, with boys tending to have higher dropout rates than
girls. This problem is particularly pervasive in the poorer countries of Central America,
where dropout rates stood at roughly 52% in Guatemala, 53% in Honduras, and 41% in⁵
Nicaragua in 2005. Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, with a primary

¹ Statistics on how regions are faring in reaching the Education MDGs are from the United
Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization’s (UNESCO) Institute for Statistics.
See [http://www.uis.unesco.org/template/pdf/EducGeneral/MDG_2007Goal%202-3.pdf].
² Joan B. Anderson, “Improving Latin America’s School Quality: Which Special Interventions
Work?,” Comparative Education Review, May 2005.
³ Emiliana Vegas and Jenny Petrow, Raising Student Learning in Latin America: The Challenge
for the 21^st Century, Washington DC: World Bank, 2007.
⁴ Gillette Hall and H.A. Patrinos, eds. Indigenous Peoples, Poverty and Human Development in
Latin America 1994-2004, Washington DC: World Bank, 2005.
⁵ United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), Social
Panorama of Latin America, 2006, p. 400.

enrollment rate of some 67% and a primary completion rate of less than 30%, lags far
behind other countries in the region on all education indicators.⁶
Few governments in Latin America invest the percent of their budgets on education
that is recommended by international education experts.⁷ Moreover, most governments
have devoted a much larger percentage of their education budgets to funding primary
schools and subsidizing public universities rather than secondary schools. A recent World
Bank study maintains that in order to reach a secondary target enrollment rate of 85%,
Latin America would need to double their current resource allocation level for secondary
education, which could be difficult given current resource constraints in many countries.⁸
U.S. Education Programs in Latin America
The United States has long been a major supporter of education programs in Latin
America. Education assistance programs are generally administered by USAID, whereas
most educational exchange and scholarship programs are run by the State Department’s
Bureau of Education and Cultural Affairs (ECA).
U.S. Agency for International Development. USAID’s Bureau of Latin
America and the Caribbean (LAC) implements regional and bilateral education assistance
programs in Latin America. Those programs focus on: increasing resources for basic
education, providing teacher training, improving the quality of curricula and teaching
materials, strengthening parental and community engagement in schools, and increasing
access to educational opportunities for disadvantaged youth. In FY2006, the U.S.
government provided some $73.4 million in total education assistance to Latin America.
Total education assistance fell to roughly $54.4 million in FY2007. The FY2008 request
for education in Latin America was reduced again to $39.4 million.
Regional Programs. There are three major regional education assistance
programs supported by USAID in Latin America. In 2001, President Bush established the
Centers of Excellence for Teacher Training (CETT) initiative in order to strengthen
the quality of literacy instruction offered in Latin America. Since 2002, CETT has
provided training and follow-up support to more than 15,000 teachers of Grades 1-3 from
fifteen countries in the region. CETT programs are offered at regional training centers
located in Peru, Jamaica, and Honduras. CETT plans to have trained a total of 20,000
teachers by 2009, with the aim of improving the basic literacy instruction offered to some

650,000 children.⁹ The Partnership for Educational Revitalization in the Americas

⁶ These figures are taken from the website of USAID in Haiti, available at
[http://www.usaid.gov/ht/education.htm]. No recent UNESCO or ECLAC education data are
available for Haiti.
⁷ Partnership for Educational Revitalization in the Americas, 2007, “2007: A Lot to Do: Report
Card on Education in Central America and the Dominican Republic.”
⁸ Emanuela di Gropello, ed. Meeting the Challenges of Secondary Education in Latin America
and East Asia, World Bank, 2006, p. xxviii.
⁹ For more information, see the Centers for Excellence in Teacher Training’s (CETT) website,
[ h t t p : / / www.r eadi n gf or al l c hi l d r e n.or g/ ] .

(PREAL)¹⁰ is a private group that seeks to monitor equity and quality in national and
regional education programs in Latin America. It publishes “report cards” on educational
performance in each country in the region, compiles and disseminates best practices, and
convenes conferences and seminars on education in the Americas. The Cooperative
Association of States for Scholarships (CASS), founded in 1985, provides two-year
scholarships for disadvantaged students and rural professionals from Central America,
Haiti, and Mexico to community colleges in the United States. The students receive
technical and leadership training on how to promote economic and social development
in their countries of origin. More than 5,000 individuals have graduated from the CASS
program. The CASS program is similar to a past scholarship program, the Caribbean and
Latin American Scholarship Program (CLASP), which provided academic and/or
technical training in the United States to more than 23,000 individuals from Latin
America and the Caribbean between 1985 and 1996.
Country Programs. In Latin America, USAID currently provides bilateral
education assistance to the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras,
Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, and Peru. Other countries that receive assistance through
USAID’s regional education programs include Belize, Bolivia, Ecuador, Grenada,
Guyana, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and Trinidad and Tobago. Many of
these country programs are implemented by USAID’s partner organizations through the
“Equip123” contracting mechanism. Equip 1 programs focus on building education
quality in the classroom, school and community. Equip 2 programs aim to improve
educational systems and management. Equip 3 programs seek to serve out-of-school
youth.
The largest bilateral education programs are in Haiti and Honduras. In FY2006,
Haiti received $10.4 million to support basic education programs and $2.5 million to
support higher education programs. According to USAID, ongoing U.S.-supported
education programs have lowered dropout rates and raised the performance of more than
75,000 Haitian youth. In Honduras, USAID has helped the government to develop new
curriculum standards and a monthly evaluation system to ensure that students are learning
math and reading skills. The chart below displays funding amounts for USAID country
education assistance programs for FY2006, FY2007, as well as the FY2008 funding
request for each country.

¹⁰ PREAL was jointly established in 1995 by the Inter-American Dialogue in Washington, DC,
and the Corporation for Development Research in Santiago, Chile. For more information on its
activities and publications, see [http://www.preal.org/].

Table 1. USAID Bilateral Education Assistance Programs in Latin
America
(U.S. $ in millions)
Country F Y 2006 F Y 2007 F Y 2008
Ac t u al Es t . Request
Dominican Republic1.51.72.0
El Salvador4.33.53.0
Guatemala 4.3 3.5 3.0
Haiti12.85.56.8
Honduras 11.8 7.8 4.7
J a ma ica 3.4 3.0 2.0
Mexico7.00.52.7
Nicaragua 5.7 4.7 1.7
Peru2.52.52.5
Total Bilateral Assistance53.332.728.4
Sources: U.S. State Department, Congressional Budget Justification for Foreign
Operations, FY2008; FY2007 estimates obtained in an email from the State
Department’s Bureau of Foreign Assistance on 12/12/2007.
State Department. The State Department supports and administers most U.S.
education and cultural exchange programs, as well as some scholarship programs that
benefit Latin American students. In March 2007, President Bush announced the creation
of a Partnership for Latin American Youth program, a $75 million initiative over three
fiscal years to provide English training for students, home-country and U.S.-based study¹¹
opportunities, and skills development for high school aged students in Latin America.
In 2006, the Study of the United States Institute for Student Leaders brought 35 Latin
American undergraduate students to the United States for an intensive course of study on
U.S. society, culture, history, and values. In addition, the Fusion Arts Exchange enabled
twelve talented undergraduates from the region to participate in intensive academic
exchanges with institutions focused on their respective fields of expertise. The best
known graduate fellowship program funded by the State Department is the Fulbright
Foreign Student Program. The Fulbright Program provides fellowships to foreign

¹¹ For a description of the initiative, see “Fact Sheet: Advancing the Cause of Social Justice in
the Western Hemisphere,” press release, White House, Office of the Press Secretary, March 5,
2007. In FY2007, the State Department devoted roughly $10 million to support the Partnership
for Latin American Youth, including some $2.5 million from the Bureau of Educational and
Cultural Affairs’ (ECA) budget. ECA activities will continue at about the same level in FY2008.
However, since President Bush had already submitted his FY2008 budget request prior to the
announcement of the Partnership, the request does not include increased funding to support its
programs. Source: Personal correspondence with ECA official, November 1, 2007.

graduate students for study and research abroad. In 2007, 389 Latin American students
were given Fulbright scholarships to study at U.S. universities. On a recent visit to the
region, U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings said that the United States has
begun to regain ground lost to Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom as the primary
destination for Latin American students seeking to studying abroad, despite the additional
visa requirements that have been put in place since September 11, 2001.¹²
While applications for student visas to the United States have declined in recent
years, the number of exchange visas granted to students and professionals from Latin
America and other regions has been increasing. The Bureau of Educational and Cultural
Affairs (ECA) supports a number of International Visitor Leadership Programs that
have enabled young professionals to travel to the United States for training and
enrichment programs. In recent years, special efforts have been made to provide
opportunities to candidates from diverse ethnic backgrounds, including Afro-Latinos and
indigenous groups. ECA also provides visitor programs for foreign educators who teach
English as a foreign language and/or American studies through institutes and teaching
assistant programs. The Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship Program brings mid-career
professionals from developing countries to the United States for a year of non-degree,
graduate-level course work in their field of professional expertise. In 2007, 19 Latin
Americans received Humphrey fellowships. The State Department also gives grants to
non-governmental organizations (NGOs) for citizen exchange programs. The 2006 grants
included an exchange program between immigrant youth in San Diego, California and
internally displaced young people in Bogota, Colombia, and a film, mural, and theater
exchange project between the Harlem neighborhood of New York City and El Alto and
Potosi, Bolivia.¹³
Legislative Initiatives
In the 110^th Congress, H.R. 176 (Lee), the Shirley A. Chisholm United States-
Caribbean Educational Exchange Act of 2007, was passed (371-55) by the House on July
31. It would authorize assistance to the countries of the Caribbean Community
(CARICOM) to fund educational development and exchange programs. It would provide
two-year scholarships in the United States for secondary students, four years of study for
undergraduate students, 30 months of study for graduate students, and up to one year of
study for post-graduate students and scholars from CARICOM countries. In return, the
students would be required to either return to work in a CARICOM country or to work
in a capacity that directly benefits a CARICOM country for a period of time equal to the
length of their scholarship, not to exceed two years.
H.R. 2092 (Lowey)/S. 1259 (Clinton), the Education for All Act of 2007 (introduced
on May 1, 2007 in both the House and the Senate) would amend the Foreign Assistance
Act of 1961 to provide assistance for developing countries to improve their basic
education systems. The bill would also establish the achievement of universal basic
education in all developing countries as an objective of U.S. foreign assistance.

¹² “U.S. Woos Latin American Students After Post 9-11 Decline,” CNN, August 21, 2007.
¹³ U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, 2006 Grants Awarded,
at [http://exchanges.state.gov/education/citizens/culture.grants/awarded.htm].