Table 9 provides an assessment of where Central American countries stand with respect to policies that may facilitate entry into tertiary education, based on the OECD framework for reviewing public policies towards equity in tertiary education. Nicaragua’s promotion of universities for the Afro-Caribbean population stands out as distinct amongst the Central American countries and may account for the greater equality in access. However, these two universities receive relatively little of public funding. Although information is not readily available for many of the other policies (or they do not exist), they provide the basis for further policy development.

In the short run, a concentrated effort is required to help disadvantaged students who complete secondary to enroll in tertiary, combining financial help with programs to help them prepare for entrance examinations, counseling and social services, along with remedial and extra classes to support them in the first few years of tertiary education, when drop-out rates are high.

# **Overcoming Financial Constraints**

The countries that have higher access in tertiary education, with greater participation of the poor, operate relatively large scholarship programs. Public universities in Costa Rica operate a large number of scholarships at the tertiary level, and this contributes to the relatively large share of poor students who are able to participate; their effectiveness is reduced simply because the pool of poor secondary education completers is so small. Panama has a well-managed system of scholarships run by Scholarships for tertiary education for disadvantaged students run by the _Instituto para la Formación y Aprovechamiento de los Recursos Humanos_ (IFARHU), which receives its revenues from a payroll tax. IFARHU also grants scholarships funded by third parties, mainly the Ministry of Economy and Finance for higher education abroad Similarly, Nicaraguan public universities also offer scholarships, again reflected in the improvement in the transition from secondary to university education.

There seems to be scope for encouraging the use of financial incentives to facilitate the transition from upper secondary to tertiary education. In Panama, where the proportions of students completing upper secondary education are the highest, further targeted programs for encouraging entry into tertiary education would seem appropriate. In Guatemala, where the participation of indigenous students in tertiary education is very low, scholarships are offered by aid agencies and reach a few hundred students. Even though the number of indigenous students who reach upper secondary education is very low, it would seem appropriate to provide extra help to most of these students to enable them to enter tertiary education, in the interest of breaking the deep structural inequalities in the society. Overall, as seen earlier, many students have to work while they are studying, and this may have an impact both on quality and on efficiency and welldesigned programs to enable students from low socio-economic background to complete their studies on time without having to take a job should be considered.

Finally, a major policy issue is the large proportion of poor students who go to private institutions and who receive no support, while the main beneficiary of public subsidies for tertiary education are the richer students. Central American countries currently lack policies and instruments to provide funding for such students, as public funding is provided to the public universities and there are no over-arching governance mechanisms that steer that entire higher education system.

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