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Education in Central America

1200	Educación
1203	Education in Central America	- Alvarez, Benjamin - Dassin, Joan - Rosenberg, Larry - Bloom, David
Central America has achieved substantial gains in access to primary and secondary education. But educational quality remains low and sharp inequalities in educational supply and output persist, both within countries and between Central America and other regions. Nor has educational expansion managed to alleviate extensive poverty and income inequality in most Central American countries. Nevertheless, education reform is a potent channel for promoting income growth and the reduction of economic hardship in the medium and long term. It can also produce short-term political and social benefits, such as increased community participation in school management and reform. The strong conviction that education reform is a powerful tool for social justice, a history of successful reforms over the past decade, and the heightened engagement of the for-profit and not-for-profit private sector in education will positively influence Central America 's ongoing education reform efforts. In addition, Central America is well-positioned to take advantage of new development thinking that stresses the importance of building local capacity, developing knowledge management systems, implementing institutional reforms, enhancing learning resources, and building public-private partnerships for education reform.
July, 1999	26 Pages