Ah, mi Peru, to educate you...

Education 8 November, 2007 [ 19:30 ]

Peru Ranked Last in the World in Quality of Education

(LIP-ir) -- According to a report released by the World Economic Forum (WEF) last week, out of 131 countries ranked in the world, Peru was in last place in the quality of its elementary school education and in 130th place in the areas of math and science.

On the other hand, the WEF report recognized Peru for its low inflation rate, ranking it 16th and its interest in and protection of private investments, ranked at 15.

Patricia Salas, President of the National Education Council, was shocked at the WEF results stating that Peru had worked very hard on improving its education system. She stated that an education reform as well as an analysis of methodology was needed to help the situation.

"We are all worried about education but I'd say that we still don't understand what education problems are. It's not a matter of quantity but quality. We can't believe that we can provide a good education just repeating things in texts or things that are on the Internet. To educate well, we have to work on the way in which people produce thoughts," said Salas.

Salas affirmed that the State needed new material and had to change the way teachers were trained. She stated that the educational system had to be completely reformed by redesigning curriculums and changing methodologies. Salas stated that if this was done, benefits could be seen in as early as 5 - 7 years.