PROGRAMME ON LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN
Joint Project CIS/CADEP
Employment Policy in an Open Economy: Paraguay
Working Paper No. 2
Education and Employment in Paraguay:
Issues and Perspectives1
by Ernesto Schiefelbein
January 6, 2005
1 This report used data prepared by the Dirección General de Estadística, Encuestas y Censos
(DGEEC) and the Servicio Nacional de Evaluación del Proceso Educativo (SNEPE). This version
benefited from comments by Albert Berry and Guillermo García-Huidobro, data prepared by Nimia
Torres and José Brunstein, and discussions with Nelson Aguilera, Luis Galeano, Marcos Robles and
Domingo Rivarola. Staff from CADEP and CIDE prepared the Tables and carried out the bibliographic
research. The author is responsible for remaining errors.
CIS/CADEP
Working Paper No. 2
Table of Content
Executive Summary
ii
1.
Introduction
1
2. Good coverage in pre-school and primary education, but gaps in
secondary and higher education
1
3. Universal and timely access to grade one, but low schooling and high
heterogeneity
3
4. The unequal distribution of schooling is shown in secondary, but starts in
primary education
7
5. Low coverage in secondary education revealed by international
comparisons
9
6. Poor reading in primary education constraints advance to secondary
education
10
7. Access to education does not guarantee learning in Latin American
countries
13
8. International comparisons show a gap on educational achievement
13
9. Low adult functional literacy hinders productivity of the labour force
15
10. The market demands better educated workers
17
11. Low contribution to micro/medium enterprise or externalities of female
education
21
12. Low impact of development projects financed by international Banks
22
13. Education quality is not constrained by funding, but human resources
23
14. Qualifications of teachers and trainers should be raised
27
15