In Latin America, New Urgency to Educate Stirs Up Outdated System

Teach for America is spreading beyond the US border. Enseña por México, Teach for Mexico, is one of various programs in seven Latin American countries that replicate the model by sending recent college graduates into low-income schools. Mexico’s program operates in 65 schools across four states; similar, older programs in Chile and Peru garner praise for improved educational outcomes. Eight Latin American countries that participated in the OECD’s Program for International Student Assessment ranked in the bottom third worldwide. The new programs reflect an increased emphasis on education in Latin America, accompanied by increased education spending in Colombia and Peru. “Colombia made waves in August when it announced its plan to create the best public education system in the region by 2025, and to budget more for education in 2015 than for security and defense,” reports the Christian Science Monitor. Education reformers in the region must grapple with teacher absenteeism, low expectations for children from low-income families, insufficient funding and high-school dropout rates that approach 50 percent. – YaleGlobal