Climate change is increasing temperatures and the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events such as heatwaves, droughts, floods, landslides, and tropical storms at an unprecedented rate in Latin America and the Caribbean. These climate changes are causing devastating socioeconomic impacts in the region. Education has a leading role in supporting efforts to decarbonize and increase resilience to climate change.
What should a student know? What knowledge is most necessary? How should we teach? The answer to all these questions lies in the educational curriculum – the roadmap that lays out the knowledge and skills students should acquire in school. The faster society changes, the more flexible the curriculum should be to adapt and respond to new needs. This is probably why curriculum reforms are at the center of discussion on the education agenda in countries within and outside the region.
Following the publication of the presidential decree in September 2014 relating to the reform of the schools functioning in Haiti, national achievement tests (or national exams) in the 6th and 12th grades (6e AF and Rhéto) were eliminated officially. As clause 3 of the decree stipulated, the Ministry of National Education and Professional Development (MENFP) should organize targeted national evaluation sessions from the 4th grade on basic disciplines.
Latin America suffered some of the world's longest school closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic, compelling countries to explore diverse alternatives to maintain children's education. At the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), we investigated various strategies to counteract the learning crisis instigated by these closures and the pre-existing conditions of low educational attainment in the region. We found that one of the most cost-effective strategies was phone tutoring. ConnectEd served as our primary inspiration for this approach.
**Keynote speech delivered during the Lemann Foundation UNGA 2023 Side event “Eradicating Illiteracy in Brazilian Schools: Lessons for the Global South.”
Let me start by talking about an enormous problem—and then about an enormous opportunity to solve it.
“Beyond learning music, it awoke something bigger in me. . . . This is what I have always been searching for, the room to be taken seriously as an artist.”
—Merily Ajcip, cellist, Orquesta Alaíde Foppa, Antigua, Guatemala
International evidence demonstrates that music education can play an important role in childhood and youth development.
"Flor now knows how to read; she says that the letters, which to me look like complicated drawings to understand and put together, are counters of things and that when you learn to read, it's like stories are being told to you." This excerpt is from Letras en los cordones (Letters on Shoelaces) by Cristina Falcón Maldonado and Marina Marcolin. It is a picture book that tells the story of Flor and her six siblings' experiences at school. It illustrates how reading and writing can shape complete educational trajectories and open opportunities to overcome poverty and exclusion.
School feeding programs support children's health, nutrition, and education across Latin America and the Caribbean. When COVID-19 closed schools in 2020, these programs adapted by shifting to take-home rations, ensuring 80.3 million children continued receiving meals. As schools reopen, integrated approaches are needed to get kids back on track.
Promoting diversity and inclusion in the realm of audiovisual content creation is vital. It's a driving force propelling the audiovisual industry in Latin America and the Caribbean to new heights, transforming it into a true powerhouse for economic and social progress. This entails ensuring the representation of various ethnic, cultural, and gender groups and providing opportunities to individuals who have traditionally been marginalized within the industry.
Promoting training in digital skills for social and labor inclusion is the primary goal of Guayerd. This EdTech company supports and professionally integrates talent from socially and economically vulnerable groups in Latin America. Learn about the education in technology proposal and the testimonies of some participants who received a free scholarship to study programming.