So Long Columbus – Latin Americas Sticks to Its Roots and Celebrates Indigenous Resistance

The IMF says the vast majority of the communities across the continent continue to suffer discrimination, violence and poverty. In the recent years, the world has seen massive protests against the commemoration of Christopher Columbus Day on October 9 with many nations replacing it with a celebration of Indigenous communities. The ongoing demonstrations denounce the fifteenth century explorer as the man responsible for decimating the first peoples of the Americas. Indigenous communities make up about 13 percent of the total population in Latin America in countries including Bolivia, Guatemala, Mexico, Ecuador and Brazil. According to International Monetary Fund, the vast majority of the Indigenous populations across the continent continue to suffer discrimination, violence and poverty. “For the five countries with the largest indigenous populations, poverty rates for indigenous peoples remained virtually stagnant over the past decade,” Gillette Hall and Harry Anthony Patrinos [http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/2005/12/hall.htm]…

China’s yuppies want schools to be more laid-back  With a postgraduate degree in literature, Ruby Li has ridden China’s education system almost to the top. Now a mother-of-two living in Chengdu, a city in the south-west, she hopes to spare her children the high pressure and long hours of homework that she endured at their age. Some years ago Ms Li and her husband, a businessman, moved their elder son from a conventional kindergarten to another one that uses less formal and rigid methods of teaching. She says that since then he has been happier and healthier, and their home life more harmonious, too…

Private education is growing faster than public education in Africa

Pathways to Education: An Integrated Approach to Helping At-Risk High Pathways to Education is a comprehensive support program developed to improve academic outcomes of high school students from very poor social-economic backgrounds. The program includes proactive mentoring, daily tutoring, and group activities, combined with intermediate and long-term incentives to reinforce a minimum degree of mandatory participation; it began in 2001 for entering grade 9 students living in Regent Park, the largest public housing project in Toronto. It expanded in 2007 to include two additional Toronto projects. Comparing students from other housing projects before and after the introduction of the program, high school graduation and postsecondary enrollment rates rose dramatically for Pathways-eligible students, in some cases by more than 50 percent…

Preventing Dropout in Secondary Schools  This practice guide provides school educators and administrators with four evidence-based recommendations for reducing dropout rates in middle and high schools and improving high school graduation rates. Each recommendation provides specific, actionable strategies; examples of how to implement the recommended practices in schools; advice on how to overcome potential obstacles; and a description of the supporting evidence…

Vietnam prioritises education to reduce social inequality  Ambassador Pham Thi Kim Anh, deputy permanent representative of the Vietnam mission to the United Nations (UN), highlighted the role played by education in reducing social inequality while speaking at the 72nd session of the UN Social, Humanitarian and Cultural Affairs Committee in New York on October 3…

Training Vouchers and Labour Market Outcomes in Chile This paper evaluates the impact of a training voucher programme in Chile, called Bono Trabajador Activo, on two labour market outcomes: monthly earnings and employment probabilities. Results indicate that the voucher has an overall positive impact on earnings, particularly among less educated workers…

J-PAL Skills for Youth Program Review Paper LAC countries haven’t been able to create the conditions necessary for youth to fully develop their capacities. We need to better understand what factors contribute to high-quality training…