Geneva, December 4 (RHC)-- The Regional Bureau of Education for Latin America and the Caribbean, a part of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, UNESCO, has urged governments and education systems in the area to intensify efforts to improve student learning and make the right to quality education effective.

The United Nations entity presented the results of the Regional Comparative and Explanatory Study (ERCE 2019), which compared to the previous survey of this type, applied in 2013, shows that student performance levels are low and that no improvements are observed in most countries. 

The survey, conducted before the COVID pandemic, involved more than 160,000 children from 16 countries in the region who were in 3rd and 6th grades of primary education, in the areas of Reading, Writing, Mathematics and Science. 

The study suggests that a high proportion of the region's children are falling behind.  In 3rd grade Reading, 44.3 percent are at the lowest level of performance; in Mathematics, 47.7 percent are at the lowest level.

The lowest-performing 6th graders fail to solve problems that require interpreting information or that involve two or more operations, including multiplication or division.

The study also looked at performance levels with respect to gender differences.  On this point, it revealed that there are five countries where the gaps in favor of boys persist in Mathematics and that, as a trend, girls in the region obtain better results in Reading.