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United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) about inequality:

Only quarter of countries in Latin America and the Caribbean

have inclusive education laws

PARIS, FRANCE — A new report
published today by UNESCO shows
the extent of exclusion in edu-
cation now further exacerbated
by Covid-19. In the region, only
around a quarter of countries have
inclusive education laws covering
all learners. Chile and Paraguay
are noted for being two of only
five countries in the world to have
inclusive education laws covering
all learners. The 2020 Global Edu-
cation Monitoring (GEM) Report
shows that inequalities will have
deepened during the pandemic:
40% of countries worldwide have
not supported learners at risk dur-
ing the crisis. It calls on the region
to foster more resilient and equal
societies by concentrating on
those being left behind as schools
re-group.

“To rise to the challenges of our
time, a move towards more inclu-
sive education is imperative”, said
the Director-General of UNESCO,
Audrey Azoulay. “Rethinking the
future of education is all the more
important following the Covid-19 existing inequalities. Even before a story. Ιn Brazil, Mexico and Peru, website, ‘PEER*’, with descriptions
pandemic, which further widened the pandemic, almost 12 million there is persistent inequality by in- of laws and policies on inclusion in
and put a spotlight on inequalities. children and youth were excluded digenous background, even after education for every country in the
Failure to act will hinder the prog- from education in Latin America controlling for social class. world. PEER shows that many coun-
ress of societies.” and the Caribbean, with poverty tries still practice segregation in
the main constraint to access. Socio-economic segregation is education, which can feed stereo-
Exclusion is persistent: This year’s also persistent: half the students in typing, discrimination and alien-
Report, ‘All Means All’, is the fourth Education systems are not adapt- Chile and Mexico would have to ation: 42% of countries in the re-
in the GEM Report annual series, ing to student’s needs, leaving one be reassigned schools to achieve gion have laws calling for children
which monitors progress across in four 15-year-old students global- a uniform socio-economic mixture. with disabilities to be educated in
209 countries towards the educa- ly reporting feeling like outsiders at And data from the region suggest separate settings. In practice, not
tion targets in the Agenda 2030 for school; rising to above 30% in the that segregation by ethnic origin is many mainstream primary schools
Sustainable Development. It will be Dominican Republic. The region even more widespread than seg- receive students with disabilities; at
followed by a regional report for is one of the most linguistically di- regation by socio-economic sta- most 40%, according to the latest
Latin America and the Caribbean verse in the world, but education tus. comparable data.
this October. systems do not always reflect this:
In grade 3, students who do not Exclusion can be very blatant.
The education crisis during Co- speak the language of the test are Alongside today’s new Report, the Continued on Page 32
vid-19 was fueled by deep pre- 3 times less likely to be able to read GEM Report has launched a new

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