Brazil, Peru show biggest gaps in student outcomes in Latin America, report says
Education inequality remains one of the primary challenges in Latin America, according to a report by the School of Education at Universidad Austral, a private university in Argentina. The study is based on the 2022 PISA results -- the latest test administered by the OECD -- across seven countries in the region: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru and Uruguay.
The report evaluates how many 15-year-olds reach basic proficiency in math and reading, comparing outcomes by socioeconomic background and gender. Researchers assessed the performance gap between the bottom 20% and the top 20% of students in each country.
The inequality indicator shows that, in reading comprehension, the countries with the highest disparities are Peru, Colombia and Argentina. For every three students from high-income backgrounds who understand what they read, only one from a low-income background does. Chile showed the lowest disparity, while Uruguay, Brazil and Mexico fell in the middle.
Across all countries, girls outperformed boys in reading comprehension, though the socioeconomic gap remained significant.
In math, Brazil had the highest inequality in the region. For every five high-income students who met minimum standards, only one low-income student did. Peru and Argentina followed closely. Chile and Uruguay showed smaller, though still notable, gaps.
Among low-income students, boys consistently outperformed girls in math in all seven countries. However, among wealthier students, girls scored higher than boys in most countries -- except Mexico and Peru.
The report also found that girls from low-income backgrounds face a "double disadvantage" in math, performing worse than both low-income boys and high-income girls.
The report's authors, economists Eugenia Orlicki and Cecilia Adrogué, recommend targeted policies to address these disparities. Their proposals include literacy programs, stronger early childhood education, focused math interventions and integrating a gender perspective in the classroom.
Despite broader access to education, inequality in the region has deepened, the report notes. Inclusion, the authors conclude, only matters if all students are truly learning.
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