Smart spending in education is an approach that seeks to generate greater impact on learning. For decades, the debate on education in Latin America and the Caribbean has revolved around a seemingly simple question: How much do we spend on education? Yet this perspective, while important, is insufficient. Public spending on education in the region fell to 3.9% … [Read more...] about What are we talking about when we use the term “smart spending” in education?
#Education
More Than a Meal: Why School Meals Matter for Nutrition
School feeding programs not only nourish millions of children across Latin America and the Caribbean; they also ease household budgets and strengthen the resilience of food systems. Every day, millions of children across Latin America and the Caribbean walk into school hungry. For these children school may be the only place where they receive a nutritious meal. There … [Read more...] about More Than a Meal: Why School Meals Matter for Nutrition
How can we make sure every school has the staff it needs?
One of the major challenges in education management is ensuring that each school has the education personnel it needs. Across Latin America and the Caribbean, each year, policymakers must estimate and assign teaching positions in schools to ensure education for millions of students. Without proper planning, some schools may have more teachers than they need, while … [Read more...] about How can we make sure every school has the staff it needs?
From human counselors to AI agents: What We Learned From Scaling Career Guidance in Chile
Scaling effective educational interventions remains a major policy challenge. Programs that succeed at a small scale often lose impact when expanded—a phenomenon researchers call the "voltage effect." This is especially true for interventions that depend on intensive human interactions such as counseling, coaching or mentoring, where cost and availability of skilled personnel … [Read more...] about From human counselors to AI agents: What We Learned From Scaling Career Guidance in Chile
From Hype to Reality: Rethinking AI in Education Across Latin America and the Caribbean
What comes to mind when you hear the words “artificial intelligence”? When we posed this question to students at two public schools in Colombia, their answers ranged from giggles to thoughtful silence—and one unforgettable response: “AI is like a unicorn-duck. It doesn’t exist. It’s just something made up on computers or phones.” Watch the video: “AI in … [Read more...] about From Hype to Reality: Rethinking AI in Education Across Latin America and the Caribbean