Karachi, In response to the low performance of students from Latin America and the Caribbean in the PISA 2022 tests, UNESCO has called for urgent action in the education sector. This call follows a pattern of stagnation in learning achievements, particularly in Mathematics, as evidenced by the PISA 2022 results where more than half of the students in the region failed to achieve basic competencies in the subject.
According to United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, the PISA 2022 Launch Event for Latin America and the Caribbean was organized by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and UNESCO’s Regional Office in Santiago. Claudia Uribe, director of UNESCO’s Regional Office in Santiago, highlighted the critical findings of the PISA 2022 results. She noted that a significant proportion of 15-year-olds in the region do not meet the minimum competencies in Mathematics, Science, and Language necessary to navigate today’s world challenges.
Uribe pointed out that this stagnation at low levels of learning had been previously identified in the UNESCO ERCE 2019 study, even before the pandemic. The need for countries to take decisive actions to reverse this trend and ensure students acquire essential skills and competencies was emphasized.
The Comparative and Explanatory Regional Study (ERCE), conducted by UNESCO’s Latin American Laboratory for the Assessment of the Quality of Education (LLECE), has been evaluating primary students’ learning for nearly 30 years. The study accounts for various aspects of education quality, with a special post-pandemic assessment currently underway and the next ERCE study planned for 2025.
ERCE 2019 study results and two studies released in 2022 – the Social Panorama of Latin America and the Caribbean 2022 by ECLAC and the ODS4-Education 2030 Regional Monitoring Report by UNESCO, UNICEF, and ECLAC – had already indicated a visible stagnation in learning achievements in the region before the pandemic. José Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs, Executive Secretary of ECLAC, expressed concerns about the general deterioration of learning of an entire generation of schoolchildren, not only in the region but globally, due to the educational impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Andreas Schleicher, Director of Education and Skills at the OECD, acknowledged that despite the overall decline in performance, some Latin American countries have shown progress in Mathematics, Reading, and Science, improving equity and schooling.
Detailed results from PISA 2022 revealed that the average level of Latin America and the Caribbean remains significantly lower than the OECD average. In the region, educational performance inequality is pronounced, with 88% of the poorest students underperforming in Mathematics compared to 55% among the richest. Additionally, PISA 2022 reports a greater scarcity of human and pedagogical resources in lower socioeconomic level schools in the region.
Despite some countries meeting global educational financing commitments, the investment per student in the region is substantially lower than in OECD countries.
To address these challenges, an extraordinary ministerial meeting of Ministers of Education of Latin America and the Caribbean will be held at the end of January 2024 at the ECLAC headquarters. It will be convened by UNESCO and the Ministry of Education of Chile and co-organized by various regional and international organizations.