From: David Sangurima <sangu@igc.apc.org>
Newsgroups: soc.culture.latin-america
Date: 11 Nov 92 21:15 PST
Subject: LATIN AMERICA: POOR QUALITY, HIGH D
Nf-ID: #N:cdp:1473800382:000:4916
Nf-From: cdp.UUCP!sangu    Nov 11 21:15:00 1992


From: David Sangurima <sangu>
Subject: LATIN AMERICA: POOR QUALITY, HIGH D

/* Written 10:53 am  Nov  9, 1992 by hrcoord@igc.apc.org in igc:reg.latinameri */
/* ---------- "LATIN AMERICA: POOR QUALITY, HIGH D" ---------- */
From: Human Rights Coordinator <hrcoord>
Subject: LATIN AMERICA: POOR QUALITY, HIGH D

/* Written 12:09 am  Nov  9, 1992 by newsdesk@igc.apc.org in
igc:ips.englibrary */ Copyright Inter Press Service 1992, all
rights reserved.  Permission to re- print within 7 days of
original date only with permission from 'newsdesk'.

Title: LATIN AMERICA: POOR QUALITY, HIGH DROP-OUT RATES BESET
EDUCATION

an inter press service feature

by yadira ferrer

santa fe de bogota, nov 6 (de ips) -- despite promises by
governments and private bodies to improve education in latin
america, poor quality, high drop-out rates and insufficient access
remain challenges for the region's school systems.

decentralization and an active participation by communities in
education were cited among possible ways to tackle the sector's
problems by officials who attended the second ibero-american
conference on education, held in the colombian capital on nov. 4
to 6.

latin american laws and constitutions enshrine education as a
fundamental right.

however, a significant percentage of children either do not attend
school, especially in rural areas, or drop out after just a few
years.

a study by the andean programme of basic studies against poverty
(proandes) and the un children's fund (unicef) shows that although
80 to 90 percent of children in the five andes pact countries
start out to school, many do not complete primary education.

the drop-out rate ranges from 27 percent in venezuela to 68
percent in bolivia.

fifty percent of ecuador's schoolchildren, 49 percent of those in
peru and 43 percent of colombian pupils also leave school early.

''the main problem affecting education in the region is that 100
percent coverage has not been achieved,'' said bolivia's hedim
cespedes, who was among latin american education ministers
attending the conference.

cespedes said his country had decided to develop a process of
decentralization in which the community participates voluntarily
in education through its organizations and with support from the
government.

for ivan nunez, an advisor of chile's education ministry, latin
american education ''is going through its expansion phase and the
main challenge is to respond with quality and with current, modern
orientations to the demands of the society.''

nunez emphasized that quality is important, ''but it must be
accompanied by solutions to the problem of equity and just
distribution.'' (more)
----

but tarcisio mora of the federation of educators of colombia
(fecode) blames officialdom for the state of education in the
region.

the quality of the education imparted in latin america ''is
mediocre because of the inefficiency of the state,'' according to
mora.

he identified the lack of teaching materials, the poor state of
school buildings and the freezing of teaching appointments as
recurring problems in most public schools in latin america.

these ills cannot be solved if decentralization is taken to mean
an administrative exercise in which the state transfers its
responsibility to provide education to the communities, mora
stressed.

this danger is alive in colombia ''because a law on
decentralization was passed, which transfers the administration of
the sector to the municipalities, without providing fiscal
mechanisms which fully guarantee their financing,'' he added.

moreover, any decentralization process has to be accompanied by
other measures which eliminate poverty.

''a hungry student, like those we receive daily in public schools,
cannot have the same capacity as one who attends a private school
and, in many cases, they abandon school before completing the
primary cycle,'' the educator pointed out.

on the other hand, cuba has managed to achieve 100 percent
attendance and good quality education despite the difficulties it
is experiencing, deputy education minister rafael bernal said.

the cuban official attributed his country's achievement in the
field to its decentralization process which, he said, had a high
degree of popular participation.

he explained that ''communities were given administrative
instruments, qualified teachers and conditions of social equity
which permit students to better utilize their faculties.''

bernal said ''latin american education presents a dramatic
panorama because, according to unesco (un organization for
education, science and culture), we have 40 million illiterate
persons and that shows us that much still has to be done for
education, in all senses.''

within this framework, decentralization can be positive if it is
understood as the correspondence which should exist between
education and the needs of communities, he added.
(end/ips/trd/so/yf-ls/kb/92)
----