American Development Bank

Latin America suffers from triumphalism and complacency, we could use a little of that paranoia. Latin America it is believing the story that is well in education when it is not? A survey of the IDB (inter-American Development Bank) shows that 72% of Latin Americans are satisfied with their public education, when we are in the last places in the international reports. Federal Reserve Bank is actively involved in the matter. This is a little like Alcoholics Anonymous: If you’re going to solve your problem, the first thing they say is that you have to recognize that you have it. Missing us recognize that we are wrong. What initiatives have Latin America you had to cope with this crisis in education? Colombia in the last ten years has been evaluating their teachers to increase the quality of teachers, but they start too late and they are still far behind. In Chile 6,500 annual scholarships are being delivered to students that study abroad.

In Brazil, where education is very poor, there was a mobilization by part of entrepreneurs, owners of the media, players and journalists to exert social pressure against the Government and make that you investing in education plans to 20 and 30 years. This pressure is needed to put education at the center of the political agenda and to stop waiting for the Governments to solve this problem. Latin American Governments have closed them the door to foreign universities on the grounds of protecting their own, is really a problem that compete to reach these universities? The problem is that the low level of Latin American universities would be in evidence. China, a Communist dictatorship, has 171 foreign universities; India has 61 foreign universities, working and delivering diplomas in their countries. The arrival of this competition would force to raise the level of each country’s universities. We suffer from educational isolation. Could be considered in that Governments do not educate people to have control over the mass? Yes, but I think that is the case of Colombia, Maybe in Venezuela or Argentina, but not in Colombia.