The school system in Panama is ranked as the one of the lowest in the Americas and ranks near countries like Nigeria world wide. While everyone says things are improving, that is from a base where school teachers are high school graduates that are taught how to teach and few of them have much education themselves. It has become a self perpetuating morass and Panama needs to get serious if they think that they are going to progress in the world. Our economic ranking in the world suffers because of guess what, education! While this is certainly a good first step, throwing money at infrastructure is like the government loaning cheap money to farmers rather than investing it in bringing in real talent from around the word to help with the systems at the same time they build new schools.
The Inter-American Development Bank has approved a loan of $70 million to provide innovative infrastructure to 47 communities in Panama, benefiting more than 38,000 students. The goal is to expand educational opportunities and encourage students in marginal areas and indigenous students to complete their basic education.
In Panama, more than a third of young people between 13 and 17 are outside the education system at secondary level. Education levels are particularly low in the areas targeted by the program. For example, in the indigenous regions of Ngäbe Yala Guna-Bugle and only 43 percent of young people are attending high school.
These resources will fund the expansion and equippment of 20 primary schools so as to include grades 7th to 9th, and the construction of two model schools with a new approach to teaching and educational management and innovative educational spaces. This is expected to generate 10,000 newly enrolled students covering levels from preschool through high school.
Here is a nice article that I read while surfing the net for a picture.
Panama’s Education System: Slowly Changing
B/.70,000,000 will not even make a dent in the school problems here.
Are those $70 million really going to promote self sufficiency of the Panamanian people or simply more dependency on government encroachment through handouts? There are over 750 private schools in Panama, most of the by the poor for the poor, working quietly and efficiently, with no corruption. Does the Inter-American Development Bank focus on these private businesses that are analogous to people fishing and not being handed fish? I thought that the whole objective of aiding people was to help them help themselves, by promoting spontaneous market activities; and no the centralized and politicizes ones. The sentiment of your article is in the right place; but I’m not sure reality is. John Bennett