Education and knowledge: basic pillars of changing production patterns with social equity

Includes bibliography

Adolescents and the right to education

The inalienable right of all people to education is enshrined in various international covenants, conventions and agreements, yet the actual fulfilment of this right varies in quantity and quality from one country to the other. On average, the compulsory length of schooling in the countries of the region is 10 years. Half of these countries have already made all secondary education mandatory, which is eminently reasonable since it is commonly accepted as a minimum threshold for lifelong well-being and skills-building. The main article in this edition of Challenges discusses this subject in depth, and shows how far behind we are in ensuring that all adolescents have access to the education to which they are entitled. It focuses on the low secondary school-completion rate and low level of learning acquisition, the strong socioeconomic and sociocultural stratification, the lack of citizenship skills, and the persistence of a relatively high dropout rate at all levels of secondary education. The main challenge in guaranteeing the right to education lies in reducing learning and attainment gaps by helping the groups that are presently lagging behind the most. As is customary, there are also reports on relevant meetings and conferences held in the region over the past half-year, together with the opinions of experts and adolescents and success stories in promoting school attendance in Uruguay and the Dominican Republic.

Digital inclusion in education in Tarija, Plurinational State of Bolivia

This study analyses digital inclusion in secondary education in the Tarija School District in the Plurinational State of Bolivia for the 2012-2013 school year, using the indicators in the Plan of Action for the Information Society in Latin America and the Caribbean (Plan of Action elac). This is an exploratory and descriptive analysis based on a sample of 311 students, 108 teachers and 15 school principals. According to the findings, teenagers use the Internet to look for information and entertainment; the expansion of mobile technology among them offers numerous educational opportunities; and insufficient training for teachers on how to integrate information and communications technologies (icts) into the learning process is a top challenge. The existence of icts in schools has been confirmed, but not their use. Local and national efforts are helping to reduce the digital divide and promote equality of opportunity for young people.

La adolescencia y el derecho a la educación

Existen diversos pactos, convenciones y acuerdos internacionales que prescriben de manera inalienable el derecho de todos y todas a la educación, aunque la expresión de este derecho, en cantidad y calidad, varía de un país a otro. El promedio de enseñanza obligatoria, establecida por derecho, es de diez años en los países de la región, si bien en el 50% de ellos toda la enseñanza secundaria (baja y alta) ya es obligatoria. Esto es razonable, si se considera como un umbral mínimo para aspirar a niveles de bienestar y desarrollo de capacidades a lo largo de la vida. El artículo central de esta edición de Desafíos profundiza en este tema y muestra los rezagos y metas para avanzar en la plena titularidad del derecho a la educación en adolescentes. Destacan la baja tasa de conclusión de la educación secundaria y de aprendizajes pertinentes, la fuerte estratificación socioeconómica y sociocultural, los atrasos en competencias ciudadanas y la persistencia de un nivel relativamente alto en deserción escolar, sobre todo a lo largo del ciclo secundario. Sin duda el principal reto para avanzar en el derecho a la educación es reducir brechas de logro y aprendizaje, favoreciendo a los grupos que hoy presentan mayor postergación. Junto al artículo central, y como es habitual, se informa sobre encuentros y conferencias en la región acerca de este tema durante el semestre en curso, se presentan opiniones expertas y de adolescentes, y se destacan experiencias positivas de promoción de asistencia escolar en el Uruguay y en la República Dominicana.

¿Existen diferencias en América Latina en el aporte de la educación preescolar al logro educativo futuro?: pisa 2009-2012

En este artículo se provee de evidencia sobre la existencia de diferencias en el rendimiento en pruebas académicas en la enseñanza media entre quienes asistieron al nivel inicial y quienes no lo hicieron. A partir de datos del Programa para la Evaluación Internacional de Alumnos (pisa) de 2009 a 2012 respecto de varios países latinoamericanos, se utiliza un método no paramétrico basado en la generación de contrafactuales que descompone las brechas entre factores observables y no observables. Se encuentra segregación por nivel socioeconómico en el acceso; brechas de puntajes considerables —condicionales a los controles utilizados— y más amplias mientras más tiempo se permanece en educación inicial; y diferencias importantes en las brechas entre países. En general, las brechas halladas son mayores en Lectura que en Matemáticas.

Challenges for secondary education in Latin America

Includes bibliography

The participation of youth in the development process of Latin America: problems and policies regarding labour force insertion, education and employment opportunities

Includes bibliography

Rol estratégico de la educación media para el bienestar y la equidad = The strategic role of secondary education in achieving well-being and social equity

Incluye Bibliografía

Latin American youth in the 1980's: equality of opportunity in education and employment

Includes bibliography

Enseñanza media, estructura social y desarrollo en América Latina = Secondary education, social structure and development in Latin America

Incluye Bibliografía

Participación de la juventud en el desarrollo de América Latina: problemas y políticas relativos a su inserción en la fuerza de trabajo y a sus posibilidades de educación y empleo = Participation of youth in the development process of Latin America: problems and policies regarding labour force insertion, education and employment opportunities

Incluye Bibliografía

Socio-demographic analysis of youth in the Caribbean- a three country case study

Many Caribbean youth are doing reasonably well. They live in loving and caring families, attend school and are involved in various social activities in their communities. The health and well-being of the children and youth1 in the Caribbean is, and has been, the centre of attention of many studies, meetings and policy directives set at the regional, subregional and national levels. Programmes have been put in place to address the basic needs of young children in the areas of health and education and to provide guidance and directives to youth and adolescents in the area of professional formation and transition to adulthood. Critical issues such as reproductive health and family planning combined with access to education and information on these topics have been promoted to some extent. And finally, the Caribbean is known for rather high school enrolment rates in primary education that hardly show any gender disparities. While the situation is still good for some, growing numbers of children and youth cannot cope anymore with the challenges experienced quite early in their lives. Absent parents, instable care-taking arrangements, violence and aggression subjected to at home, in schools and among their friends, lack of a perspective in schools and the labour-market, early sexual initiation and teenage pregnancies are some of those issues faced by a rising number of young persons in this part of the world. Emotional instability, psychological stress and increased violence are one of the key triggers for increased violence and involvement in crime exhibited by ever younger youth and children. Further, the region is grappling with rising drop-out rates in secondary education, declining quality schooling in the classrooms and increasing numbers of students who leave school without formal certification. Youth unemployment in the formal labour market is high and improving the quality of professional formation along with the provision of adequate employment opportunities would be critical to enable youth to complete consistently and effectively the transition into adulthood and to take advantage of the opportunities to develop and use their human capital in the process. On a rather general note, the region does not suffer from a shortage of policies and programmes to address the very specific needs of children and youth, but the prominent and severe lack of systematic analysis and monitoring of the situation of children, youth and young families in the Caribbean does not allow for targeted and efficient interventions that promise successful outcomes on the long term. In an effort to assist interested governments to fill this analytical gap, various initiatives are underway to enhance data collection and their systematic analysis2. Population and household censuses are conducted every decade and a variety of household surveys, such as surveys of living conditions, labour force surveys and special surveys focusing on particular sub-groups of the population are conducted, dependent on the resources available, to a varying degree in the countries of the region. One such example is the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF)-funded Multi-Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS) that assess the situation of children and youth in a country. Over the past years and at present, UNICEF has launched a series of surveys in a number of countries in the Caribbean3. But more needs to be done to ensure that the data available is analyzed to provide the empirical background information for evidence-based policy formulation and monitoring of the efficiency and effectiveness of the efforts undertaken.