Millennium Goal: To Achieve Universal Primary Education.

To ensure that by 2015, children everywhere, boys and girls alike will be able to complete a full course of primary education. Indicators: (UNESCO): 1. / Net enrolment ratio in primary education. 2. / Proportion of pupils starting grade 1 who reach grade 5 / or Primary completion rate. 3. / Literacy rate of 15-24 year olds. In 2009, at the UN presentation of the Millennium Development Goal Report, it was reported that a progress of 5% was achieved in the period 2000-2007 in primary enrolment of all the developing countries. This critical analysis will look at how effective is this goal within the region of Latin America and the Caribbean. In order to achieve universal primary education throughout this region, many factors, especially the means to achieve this goal have to be looked at. In the report, Building Gender Equality in Urban Life: Toward Universal Primary Education: UN Millennium Project Report On Education and Gender Equality by Nancy Birdsall, Ruth Levine, and Amina Ibrahim, several solutions were highlighted. Firstly, the authors highlighted two strategies that would help struggling countries reach this millennium goal. The first strategy involves getting children into schools who were previously not receiving an education. The follow are interventions that have been proven to work: Eliminating school fees- an excellent example of this is the free primary and secondary education programs within Trinidad and Tobago where the government covers the fees for the students. Overall, according to the World Bank, girls enrollment rose from 63 % to 83 %, while enrollment among the poorest fifth of girls rose from 46 %to 82 %. The theory therefore is that removal of fees will increase enrolment in schools as parents no longer have that strain. However, this can lead to an exhaustion of the educational system. Conditional Cash Transfers- basically the government rewards poor families in rural areas with cash incentives for keeping their children regularly in school. This can be seen in Mexico, where the program Progresa/Opurtunidades has increased enrollment rates at the primary and especially the secondary levels, for both boys and girls.

 School feeding Programs- In both Trinidad and Tobago and Jamaica offer such programs as incentives for children to attend school. The Food and Agricultural Organization estimates that 300 million children, most of them in developing countries, are constantly hungry. This leads to poor performance in schools. In Jamaica especially, an evaluation of the program showed retention of information and attendance rose. Educate children with disabilities- In Brazil, for example, more than one-third of the 14% of children with disabilities have visual problems that are corrected by glasses. In Panama, the renewal of a 3 year education plan in 2005 aims at enrolling disabled children into regular classes and training teachers. Educating Mothers- the Inter- American Development Bank found in a study that in Latin America 15-year-olds whose mothers have some secondary schooling remained in school two to three years longer than the children of mothers with less than four years of education. Expanding Post Primary Education- This can be seen in Trinidad and Tobago where university education at the St. Augustine campus of UWI is free through the GATE program for its citizens and free secondary education is available as well. Strategy two focuses on: Giving responsibility to parents and communities. - Data suggests that greater parental and community control leads to higher teacher attendance. Reduced absenteeism to greater involvement. An example of this is the Community-Managed Schools Program (EDUCO) in El Salvador where parents select, hire, supervise, and dismiss teachers. This takes the place of the traditional role of the government.

Despite these policies, high rates still persist in some Latin American and Caribbean countries: The region seems to be on track to meeting this goal, however drop out and repetition rates remain high. Regionally, repetition rate fell from 12% to 8% between the period 2000 and 2010. (Since 1999, repetition rates have fallen in most countries of the region.) The best improvement was made in Brazil (from 24% to 18% in 2006) and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (10% to 4%). For this same period, the number of pupils repeating a grade in primary school has decreased from 8.4 million to 5.4 million. Nevertheless, rates have been rising in Nicaragua, from 5% to 11%, and to a lesser degree in the Bahamas, Dominica, the Dominican Republic, Saint Kitts and Nevis, and Suriname.

The region has the third highest dropout regional rates (17%). But improvement is continuing with rates ranging from 15-24% in Belize, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador. The lowest rate can be found in Argentina, Cuba, Jamaica, Mexico and Uruguay, (below 5%). However, countries like Nicaragua (52% of pupils leave school without completing primary education), Guatemala (dropout rate (dp) of 35%), Saint Kitts and Nevis ((dp) 26%) and Honduras (dp) 24%) still struggle to reduce dropout rates. A country ravaged by a natural disaster like Haiti faces poverty, hunger, and extreme living conditions and its education system has been put into disarray. Even before the earthquake (2010), Haitis education system was facing a crisis due to the overthrow of the Jean-Claude Duvalier regime in 1986 which had lasting effects. Although some rebuilding has begun, the education sector has to face numerous challenges in order to reach this Millennium Development Goal, but as of this moment, it is unattainable. Primary Universal Education can be achieved but it necessitates the help of child, parent and teacher as well as governmental support. The previous solutions have impacted upon the level of education within the region however the following factors impact upon the solutions: GDP of a country and how much the government is willing/ capable of spending on the education sector, the literacy rate of the parents where children are needed at home as versus school as well as their personal income (preference of schooling goes to the boys whilst the girls are neglected).