Education for all in Latin America: evolution of the school inequality impact on achievement

This paper examines the evolution of the impact of the within and between school wealth inequalities on learning for six Latin American countries since Dakar by using PISA data for 2000 and 2012. We employ a multilevel analysis to assess the variability of achievement accounted for student and school factors and the heterogeneity of between school inequalities across schools and time. We also estimate changes on the level and strength of school wealth gradients for poor schools. We find that of the total variation, around 40% was attributable to school wealth composition and a further 10% to additional individual and school factors. Between school wealth inequality is the strongest determinant on achievement in both waves. Among poorest schools, we find some progress on the level and lower strength of school wealth inequality for reading. Results for the whole region show a convergence on the levels of gradients and countries’ average performance, with a noticeable trade-off between larger performance and more inequality for math but not for reading. On the policy front, our results suggest that education policies increasing access alone are insufficient to achieve EFA’s learning goal and should be accompanied by measures tackling wealth inequalities among poorer schools

Education for all 2000–2015: review and perspectives

This article provides a brief overview of global progress towards the six EFA objectives and international assistance to EFA strategies. It shows that, despite modest moves toward EFA achievement – some of them through explicit policies and actions by governments, international organizations, donors, and NGOs – progress since Dakar has been uneven. Much of the broad EFA agenda remains unfinished, as none of the objectives have been achieved. The global EFA mechanisms worked despite, not because of international EFA coordination efforts. Much hope had been placed on the external financing of EFA in order to accelerate EFA progress. While aid has increased, the total volume of external aid has fallen well below what has been identified as necessary, has been insufficiently focused in the most needy countries, has decreased as a proportion of recipient governments' budgets for the period and has not always been delivered effectively