Andean Group - April 2011 (ISSN 1741-4466)

International agencies regularly flag up the importance of education as a tool for redressing social inequality, particularly in Latin America, the world's most unequal region. A May 2010 World Bank report notes that overall, the Andean countries compare favourably to other sub-regions in terms of offering access to basic education; however, the 2011 Unesco Education for All Global Monitoring Report, released in February, suggests room for improvement.
 
The World Bank 2010 Human Opportunity Report for Latin America and the Caribbean puts the Andean region second only to Mexico in terms of achieving universal provision of basic education, which it measures on the basis of two criteria: timely completion of sixth grade (13 years old) and school attendance for ages 10-14. The World Bank expects Mexico to universalize basic education services by 2017 followed by the Andean countries in 2023 (although Bolivia was excluded from the analysis due to lack of representative data). Brazil and Central America are set to achieve this target by 2037 and the Southern Cone by 2048.
 
The Unesco report points to discrepancies within the sub-region with regard to progress in specific indicators. As regards basic adult literacy, only Venezuela and Colombia beat the 92% Latin American average in the period surveyed (2005-2008), with rates of 95% and 93% respectively. Bolivia - which received the most of any Latin American country in total aid disbursement for basic education (US$47m of US$303m) in 2008 - registered 91% literacy over the same period. This was an increase on the 80% recorded in the previous period cited by the report (1985-1995), eclipsing both Peru (90%) and Ecuador (84%) - the latter notably saw its rate worsen, from 88% in the previous period.
 
Aside from receiving the most foreign aid, Bolivia stood apart from its Andean neighbours with regard to another indicator considered crucial to progress in education: government expenditure on education as a percentage of Gross National Product (GNP). While the Latin American average for 2008 was 4% of GNP (down from 4.5% in 1999), Bolivia spent 5.8% of GNP according to the latest available data (2006). In line with the rest of Latin America, the other Andean countries failed to record any real improvement while Colombia and Peru registered drops - the former spent 4.1% of GNP on education in 2008 compared to 4.5% in 1999 and the latter, 2.9% in 2008 down from 3.4% in 1999.

• Other indicators

Aside from literacy, Venezuela topped the sub-region with regard to the average pupil/teacher ratio in primary education. According to the Unesco report, Venezuela had a ratio of 16 pupils/teacher in 2008, far below the 23 average for Latin America. Venezuela did, however, show a decline in another area: drop-out rates. The same report showed that Venezuela's drop-out rate at all education levels in 2007 was 19%, up from 12% in 1999. This was above the 18% Latin American average. The other Andean countries fared little better, with the exception of Colombia, which managed 12% in 2007, a significant improvement on the 33% recorded in 1999.