To motivate education reform, the Government of Finland has identified the World’s 100 most innovative and inspiring K-12 education initiatives. This month, the HundrED innovations were announced in Helsinki, Finland, including fascinating innovations that put children’s learning at the center. “Tikichuela Mathematics in My School.” Was one of the recognized innovations.
At 4,000 meters above sea level, in the Andes, is the village of Linda Linda. It is a beautiful place, in the middle of the mountains, and belongs to the region of Huánuco, one of the poorest regions of Peru. In 2013, during our first visit, we could see that children aged three to five who attended school had no place to learn. The school was made of adobe, with a thatched roof. I had no light, no drinking water. In the only classroom, there was practically no educational material. More seriously, neither the boys nor the teacher knew what to do with the few materials they had.
My daughter, AnnaMaria, recently finished 4th grade. She loved her teacher, Ms. Margi, because she made learning fun. That got me thinking. My 4th grade teacher was my favorite teacher too, Miss Guertin. Why? She made learning fun. So, I wrote her a letter that evolved into a candid and heartfelt conversation about teachers. She co-authors this blog. Delivering appropriate content in a way that evokes curiosity, excitement and passion for learning is the harder part of being an effective teacher.
There’s been a lot of talk about public-private partnerships (PPPs) and it’s no wonder. Given today’s development needs and the limited fiscal space facing many governments, private sector financing and know-how has become even more critical. 
I recently shared the results of an interesting survey commissioned by the Inter-American Development Bank in which over 33,500 respondents across the Americas defined their priorities for sustainable and inclusive infrastructure.
A quick glance at the front page of any major newspaper in the region for statistics to begin telling us a story about the reality we live in: how much did the economy grow or shrink, how many people voted for a candidate or how much was invested in a new infrastructure project. When it comes to education, however, neither data nor the reality they reveal are as easy to comprehend. What achievements do we find when we analyze the main education indicators for Latin America and the Caribbean?