This post is a summary of the chapter 5, with the title "How Can education Help Latin America Develop? The chapter 6 with the title, "Innovation and Technology development for Economic Restructuring." And the chapter 7 with the title, "Infrastructure Needs for a Resurgent Latin America." All three from the book in the link.
Latin America schools do a poor job of providing the more specific skills necessary to be competitive. Even those who achieve basic competency in reading and math are unlikely to acquire the advanced math, science and English skills that allow countries to innovate and attract foreign investment. Education, of course, is widely agreed to be one of the most poweful tools for reducing inequality. But governments spending on education, despite growth, is making only limited headway in reducing inequality. Governments tend to overspend at the tertiary level so as to provide tuition-free higher education for all. Public spending per higher education student in Latin America is often five (or more) times public spending per primary school student in Latin America, compared with ratios of approximately 1:1 in countries like Spain or Canada. Since the vast majority of students from poor families never reach the tertiary level, the result is a massive subsidy to the upper-class. More than half of the benefits of public spending on higher education go to richest 20% of the population. That portion of government education spending that does reach the poor, largely through public schools, provide education whose quality is low and that it does no significantly increase their human capital nor equip them to compete with the graduates of the private schools. The obstacles to improve the education`s systems are both technical and political, and serious reform need to address both aspects. Most ministries of education are weak and so have limited capacity to manage a large and diverse education`s system. Teaching does not attract the best and brightest applicants, in part because prestige are low and incentives do not reward merit. Clearly, bureaucracies need to be re-engineered so as to strengthen their capacity to develop and implement policy. Emphasis should be on setting and enforcing standards, regularly assessing progress and promoting quality. And the teaching profession needs to be fundamentally re-thought so as to make teaching a high-status occupation that demands and rewards good performance.
Innovation today is widely recognized as a major source of competitiveness and economic growth for all countries. Innovation has a critical role in creating jobs, generating incomes and in improving living standards. In the coming decades, knowledge and innovation will drive the comparative advantage of some countries, and a lack of it will lead to disappointing examples of failed economic performance for others. In the new global economy, a nation`s wealth lies in its skilled people, not in its land or capital, who generate new knowledge and convert it into value-added ideas, goods, services and processes. An educated workforce is a prerequisite for a vibrant technology and innovation system that serves as a major source of economic growth. The government have played an important role in the promotion of tech ( e.g. space, agriculture, health, etc). For developing countries, considerable benefits can be realized by tapping into globally available knowledge and tech and adapting them to local conditions. Many countries (e.g. India, China) are pursuing inclusive innovation and are developing products and services that benefit directly poor people. For example, India`s National Innovation Foundation setup to promote inclusive innovation has catalogued some 70,000 grass-roots innovations and is working with engineering institutions to convert many of these innovations into viable products. Latin America is at a cross-road where it needs to upgrade its tech and innovation capabilities in order to improve its economy, and to move up the value chain ladder in a highly globalized world. For upgrading the science, tech and innovation systems, Latin America needs to incease significantly their investment in R&D (research and development) from the current 0.6% of GDP to about 2% of GDP. They focus on the following key aspects: 1) Regional collaboration. 2) Educated and skilled workforce. 3) Inclusive innovation. 4) Innovation infrastructure. 5) R&D and tech absorption. 6) Centers of excellence. This is critical at a time when the region is looking to advance as a knowledge-based economy. The region has a considerable potential for productivity growth and catch-up potential in tech for economic growth as well as for improving the lives of all its citizens.
Central to Latin America`s long-term economic prospects and social well-being is increased investment in infrastructure. Various studies have emphasized the critical role of quality infrastructure services in enhancing economic productivity and competition, and in accelerating social inclusion. In short, infrastructure development is critical to all three major pillars of the strategy proposed in this book: enhancing social inclusion, increasing economic productivity, and promoting greater openness and regional cooperation. The analysis based on a that includes four simultaneous equations, confirms that the region`s long-term infrastructure requirements remain substantial. There is a sharp divides exist between countries. But even within countries, certain areas, particularly rural, suffer from access to telecom, paved roads, water and sanitation that is far poorer that enjoyed in urban areas of the same countries. This stems, in part, from the fact that , per capita, it is much expensive to extent infrastructure to the rural areas.
