Brazil also achieved over 90 per cent literacy. Ethnic minorities can learn in their own language when the education authority is local, and Escuela Nueva in Colombia has been a remarkable success story in this respect. Multigrade teaching is the norm in Escuela Nueva, where teachers are given educational material and detailed lesson plans. This approach has spread throughout the region Guatemala set up 1,000 community schools in 1997 and Paraguay and Peru are launching similar initiatives and has been adapted as far afield as the Philippines. For children in rural areas unreached by education systems, decentralization has played a crucial role in improving access to learning.
Some countries make intensive use of mass media.
Brazil and Mexico favour television, while Guatemala and Ecuador use radio as a training tool. These programmes also target isolated areas and indigenous groups. As a result of increasing social exclusion, violence in schools is rising in many countries of the region. Alarm video systems and uniformed guards are now part of many a North American school environment. The verdict of the Caribbean Education for All 2000 Assessment is that universal access to primary education is available but many are not participating.