REGIONAL PROJECT OF EDUCATION INDICATORS EDUCATIONAL PANORAMA Quito, Ecuador, August 2009 VI INTER-AMERICAN MEETING OF MINISTERS OF EDUCATION

Information on state of education for the 34 countries, related to the established goals, the achievements and the challenges ahead. Data refer to 2007 or the most recent available year Emphasis on the challenges for early childhood and education and secondary education Educational Panorama Sources Sources: Data of Education System and Literacy from UIS/UNESCO. Data on completion of primary and secondary from ECLAC Household Surveys database, for LA countries, and UIS/UNESCO for the Caribbean's. Education Assessment from UNESCO Santiago, for SERCE, and OECE for PISA. Information on TVET, from ILO. Additional information for ECCE from 2007 OAS survey.

Panorama: Account for the goals to be achieved by 2010: Goal 1:Primary education: access, universal progress, quality Goal 2: Secondary education: access for at least 75% of young population, quality and increasing percentages of youth who complete secondary education Goal 3:Lifelong learning: more opportunities, universal literacy, access to all levels of education, access to and quality of tertiary education

Access to Secondary Education Threshold 75% Few countries were able to achieve the threshold of 75% Notwithstanding, improvements occur for countries with lower rates

Completion of Secondary Education Notorious improvement in all countries regarding the completion of secondary education of young groups has been registered. Countries with lower rates show more progress

Equity: Completion in Secondary

PISA Assesses competencies (reading, mathematics and sciences) of the 15 years old school population, regardless of their level of education enrollment. (LA participating countries: AR, BR, CL, CO, UY) The percentage of Latin-American students with level of proficiency in reading lower than Level 1 varies between 10 and 54%.

General Comments An important part of the school population has not achieved minimum learning skills. Participation in comparable international studies that assess students learning achievement must be promoted. Education management information systems must be improved. The current Economic Crisis might lead to negative effects in education: Reduction on public expenditures and investment in social policies Higher levels of schhool drop-out, especially in secondary education

Last discussion at the highest level… Fifth Summit of the Americas, Trinidad and Tobago, April, 2009 ThemesObjectives and Goals ECCE and primary education Quality and access to early childhood education is a key factor to achieve the universal primary by 2015 Secondary education Access to quality secondary education to all youth population by 2015 Youth Promote access to integral education and vocational and technical training for the labor market. Pave the way towards leadership and promote healthy lifestyle. Lifelong learning Improve and expand literacy Access to tertiary, technical-vocational and adult education. Increase participation in tertiary education for at least 40% by 2020

Reference to PRIE Declaration of Commitments of Port of Spain, V Summit of the Americas, 2009: We call upon the Ministers of Education to increase efforts to measure educational progress in the Americas by the year 2010, both within our individual countries and through multilateral initiatives such as the Regional Educational Indicators Project (PRIE).

Conclusions Increase in the access to primary average by 1.3% and to secondary by 8.3%. Despite the improvement shown in the secondary net enrollment rates, there is a huge challenge regarding the completion of this level. It is urgent to improve the quality of education at all levels. The current economic crisis context calls attention to: the need to protect the achievements in education in the region, maintain the current level of public investment in education, the need to optimize the use of resources and management practices.

Recommendations Proposals for New approaches for PRIE: Development of ECCE indicators Diversify and improve the secondary education information Develop tertiary education indicators Improve the assessment of learning achievements in the region and common comparable criteria Promote more discussions and analysis using the Educational Panorama Promote the culture for using solid evidences for decision making in education

Thank you for your attention REGIONAL PROJECT OF EDUCATION INDICATORS EDUCATIONAL PANORAMA