My education, our future

Colombia will lead the regional event: A Commitment to Action

Let us all work for the education of children and teens in the region. Colombia hosted an unprecedented meeting of key leaders in education from several Latin American and Caribbean countries on March 22-23.

Despite significant efforts undertaken by governments, teachers and parents during the schools closures that took place during the pandemic, children have lost—on average—1.5 years of learning. As a result of two years of school closures in the region, learning results could have regressed more than ten years.

If action is not taken soon, via the necessary education-sector reforms, four out of every five sixth-grade students in Latin America and the Caribbean will not be able to read a simple text.

The youngest and poorest have been the most affected, preliminary evidence from several countries show that losses are greater at the primary than the secondary level; among students from lower socio-economic backgrounds, learning losses are such that many of them are at risk of abandoning school altogether.

Learning Recovery is Key

Recovery starts with a commitment. Colombia joined a global commitment to guarantee foundational skills to its children, and it is now leading and summoning other countries to join the cause of education. This effort builds on a regional declaration to protect and recover learning losses that was endorsed last year by the presidents of Argentina, Chile, Ecuador and Honduras.

This meeting is a call for all governments in Latin America and the Caribbean to join Colombia with a commitment to the education of all youngsters and to invest in them, thus guaranteeing a better future for the entire region. It is also an opportunity to analyze the current problems of the sector, draw up a roadmap and share experiences that guarantee the recovery of basic learning for children and adolescents in the region.

A live stream of this event will be shared via our social media.

Let us get #ACommitmentToAction for education.

Latin America and the Caribbean has endured one of the longest spells of school closures. The region was hit disproportionately hard in health, economic, and educational terms. In the region, an entire generation of students – approximately 170 million – were fully deprived of in-person education for roughly 1 out of 2 effective school days to date.

The effects of the pandemic on the education sector of the region have been severe:

• The overall impact on the out-of-school population was limited by the end of 2021 thanks to protective policies, but more data are needed to fully assess this impact in 2021/2022 as millions of children and teenagers are at risk of dropping out for falling behind academically.
• Expected and real learning losses are very high, and more severe for earlier grades, younger children, and children from lower socio-economic backgrounds. Average primary education scores in reading and math would fall to levels of more than 10 years ago, in a context where improvements were already very slow. About 4 in 5 sixth graders may not be able to adequately understand and interpret a text of moderate length.
• Learning losses would translate into a decrease of about 12 percent in lifetime earnings for a student at school today.
• Psychosocial health and well-being have also been greatly affected.

The incipient recovery must focus on returning to schooling and, especially, recovering and accelerating learning:

• The return to schooling agenda should encompass: (i) safely and sustainably reopening all schools; (ii) re-enrolling
• all students; and (iii) preventing dropouts.
• The recovering and accelerating learning agenda must comprise: (i) prioritizing and consolidating curricula;
• (ii) assessing learning levels; and (iii) implementing at scale learning recovery strategies and programs.

In a nutshell, this agenda entails the urgent and comprehensive implementation of four commitments:

• A commitment to place the education recovery at the top of the public agenda.
• A commitment to reintegrate all the children that abandoned school and ensure they stay in it.
• A commitment to recover lost learning and ensure the socio-emotional well-being of children.
• A commitment to value, support and train teachers.

Gabriel Boric

President of Chile

Gabriel Boric was elected president of Chile in March 2022. In 2009, Boric began his career as a student leader. Between 2010 and 2011, he served as a university senator at the University of Chile, and in 2012 he assumed the presidency of the Federation of Students of the University of Chile (Fech). In March 2014, he was elected deputy for Magallanes District 60.

Xiomara Castro

President of Honduras

Xiomara Castro was inaugurated as president of Honduras in January 2022. Castro is the first female president in the country’s history, having previously served as first lady from 2006 to 2009 during the presidency of her husband, Manuel Zelaya.

Castro began her political career working in the electoral campaigns of Zelaya, as well as in the women’s movement of the Liberal Party. She later became involved in the National Popular Resistance Front in 2009 and was among the founders of the Liberty and Refoundation (Libre) party in 2011. In the presidential elections of 2013 and 2021, she was selected as Libre’s presidential candidate.

Alberto Fernández

President of Argentina

Alberto Fernández has been President of Argentina since December 10, 2019. Previously he held the positions of director of Summaries/Proceedings and deputy director-general of Legal Affairs of the Ministry of Economy during the presidency of Raúl Alfonsín. Fernández was superintendent of Insurance between 1989 and 1995, and was the founder and first executive vice president of the BAPRO Group between 1995 and 2000.

In August 2000, he was elected legislator for the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires. Between 2003 and 2008, he served as chief/head of the Cabinet of Ministers. Fernández has a degree from the Law School of the University of Buenos Aires.

Guillermo Lasso

President of Ecuador

Guillermo Lasso was inaugurated as president of Ecuador in May 2021.President Lasso’s 50 years of experience in the public and private sectors have been marked by ideas of progress and dedication to his country and family. He has written two books: Cartas a mis Hijos, an autobiography, and Otro Ecuador es Posible, based on his political ideals.

In 2011, he received an Honorary Doctorate from the Universidad de las Américas for his professional career and achievements. President Lasso founded Ecuador Libre, an Ecuadorian think tank that seeks to promote individual freedom, justice, the free market, private property, and the rule of law.

To serve Ecuadorians, Lasso founded Ecuador’s Creating Opportunities (CREO) Party, for which he was a presidential candidate during the Ecuadorian general elections in 2013 and 2017.

Claudia Uribe Salazar

Claudia Uribe Salazar is the director of the UNESCO Regional Bureau for Education in Latin America and the Caribbean in Chile. Prior to joining UNESCO, she worked for the Inter-American Development Bank for over a decade, where she was responsible for leading technical dialogue, loan operations and technical cooperation programs in education for various countries in Latin America. Uribe Salazar has a Doctorate in Education from Harvard University with a specialization in Educational Planning, a Master’s degree in Education from Harvard University focusing on Human Development, and a BA in Anthropology from Tulane University.

Jean Gough

Jean Gough has served as regional director for Latin America and the Caribbean at the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) since November 2020. Currently, she is responsible for the leadership, supervision, and orientation of 36 countries and territories in the region. Gough also represents UNICEF to governments, donors, the private sector, and civil society in the region.

With more than 28 years of service to UNICEF, Gough has extensive experience in program management, emergency response, systems strengthening, resource mobilization, and partnerships. Prior to her current assignment, she was the regional director of UNICEF for South Asia, based in Kathmandu.

She has served in various management positions in UNICEF, including representative in Nigeria, coordinating the management of 10 local offices, covering 36 states, and the Federal Capital Territory. Gough was special representative to the State of Palestine, as well as deputy regional director for the Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean, and representative in Barbados and Eastern Caribbean.

Gough is an engineer by profession. She holds a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering and a master’s degree in water resources management from Arizona State University.

Carlos Felipe Jaramillo

Carlos Felipe Jaramillo is the World Bank’s vice president for the Latin America and the Caribbean Region, overseeing Bank relations with 31 countries. Under his leadership, the Bank’s operations in the region focus on fueling growth, reducing poverty, supporting equality, and protecting the environment.

Jaramillo was previously the World Bank country director for Kenya, Rwanda, Somalia, and Uganda, based in Nairobi. Prior to his role in Africa, Jaramillo was the senior director of the World Bank Group’s Macroeconomics, Trade and Investment Global Practice (MTI), where he led a global team of more than 450 economists. Since joining the World Bank in 2002, he has also served two terms as country director in the Latin America and Caribbean region.

Before joining the Bank, Jaramillo was a public servant in the Government of Colombia, holding offices in the Ministry of Finance, the Central Bank, and the Ministry of Trade.

Jaramillo holds an M.A. and a Ph. D. in development economics from Stanford University. He has taught at the Department of Economics of the Universidad de Los Andes in Bogotá and at the University of Maryland, College Park.

Ariel Fiszbein

Director of the Education Program at the Inter-American Dialogue.

Ariel Fiszbein is the director of the Education Program at the Inter-American Dialogue.

Prior to joining the Dialogue, Fiszbein was chief economist for the World Bank’s Human Development Network, where he has helped develop strategies for work worldwide on education, health, nutrition, population, social protection, and labor. Fiszbein has over 20 years of experience working on education and other social policy issues in Latin America and globally.

A native of Argentina, he has a PhD in economics from the University of California, Berkeley.

Emmanuela Di Gropello

Emanuela Di Gropello is currently the practice manager for education in Latin America and the Caribbean. Previously, she was manager for IEGHC human development & corporate evaluations and program leader for human development in the African continent in countries such as Cameroon, Gabon, Angola, Mali, Niger, Chad and more.

She was also successively economist, senior economist, and lead economist in human development departments in Latin America & Caribbean and East Asia.

Di Gropello holds a doctorate in economics from the University of Oxford where her research focused on an evaluation of the impact of education decentralization on education quality and equity.

Carlos Henríquez Calderón

Carlos Henríquez Calderón is the coordinator of the Latin American Laboratory for Assessment of the Quality of Education (LLECE) of UNESCO Santiago. Previously, Henríquez served as executive secretary of the Chilean Agency for Quality Education from 2014 to 2019.

Before assuming his position as head of the Education Quality Agency, Henríquez was general manager of the MideUC Measurement Center of the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile and general manager of the Municipal Corporation of Education, Services and Development of the commune of Maipú. He was also head of the Administration, Finance and Budget Division of the Ministry of Planning and university professor of economics at the Faculty of Administration and Economics of the University of Santiago de Chile.

Henríquez is a commercial engineer from the University of Santiago and has a master’s degree in management and public policy from the Department of Industrial Engineering of the Faculty of Physical and Mathematical Sciences of the University of Chile.

Italo Dutra

Italo Dutra is the regional education advisor for Latin America and the Caribbean at the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

Previously, Dutra was chief of education at UNICEF in Brazil, where he coordinated national initiatives for the active search of out-of-school children and to tackle the culture of school failure through an innovative acceleration program. He was also director of curricula and comprehensive education at the Ministry of Education in Brazil.

Dutra holds a Ph.D. in technology in education from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil, where he also served as a professor of mathematics and a researcher.