Fifteen-year-old students in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) face a very acute educational crisis, which can seriously compromise the productivity and growth of the region in the not too distant future.
According to the recent results of the Program for International Student Assessment of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), PISApublished in December 2023, the current learning results are not advancing at the expected pace, a scenario that translates into a focus of alarm for local governments and international bodies.
Especially after the pandemic, the adverse factors linked to educational lag have worsened significantly, highlighting the high rates of poverty, social inequality and even racial dynamics. The educational face of LAC drawn by the results of the PISA evaluations raises an urgent call for the recovery and acceleration of learning.
The World Bank, in the search for solutions to recover learning in the region, has carried out a first analysis of the PISA results, and has identified four main points:
- There is a deep learning crisis and marked disparities between students of different economic levels.
- There is a large gap in learning outcomes between students in the OECD and those in the region.
- There are very high proportions of students with minimum levels of competence below what is expected.
- A setback compared to previous years stands out, especially in mathematics.
According to the OECD analysis, the delay and low performance in areas such as mathematics and reading, essential for job success and the resolution of various challenges of daily life, is alarming: 75% of students in the region registered results below the basic level of proficiency in mathematics and 55% below the level of proficiency in reading. This results in an inability to optimally demonstrate the knowledge required to participate in society and future learning activities.
In this regard, Jaime Saavedra, director of Human Development for Latin America and the Caribbean at the World Bank, assures in a recent blog that the impact of the pandemic on this panorama can also be validated with the almost universal learning losses, observed in primary education in all countries that have updated national assessments.
However, Saavedra points out that the low and unequal levels of learning between 2018 and 2022 can only be partially attributed to the losses caused by the pandemic.
“Currently, entities such as the World Bank and the IDB exhaustively analyze the data from the PISA tests to accurately understand the alarming gaps in the 2022 results and the changes derived from the 2018 round, even depending on the different circumstances and characteristics. of students and schools, among which access to digital technology in the learning process stands out,” says Saavedra.
It is estimated that if the learning crisis is not corrected, today's student generation could lose up to $21 trillion in potential income (or the equivalent of 17% of current global GDP) over their lifetime.
Collective effort, from A to Z
In a world that has disrupted its social and economic dynamics in recent years, and which points towards a dizzying transformation in terms of work and professional challenges, the reinforcement of basic skills in adolescents is a priority linked to productivity and future growth. This invariably demands immediate, comprehensive and effective work between the entities involved and civil society.
Given this problem, Ferdinando Regalia, manager of the partner sector of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), points out that actions around the development and implementation of programs focused on improving teaching by emphasizing tutoring, new specialized technologies, as well as the correct investment and distribution of resources in education they are vital and urgent.
#Educational #lag #puts #growth #Latin #America #Caribbean #check