Education, Work and Citizenship
Foundations of a Relevant Social Policy in Latin America

Benno Sander
Director of Education and Social Development
Organization of American States

Keynote address delivered at the Conferência Educador 2000, Palácio Anhembi,
São Paulo, SP, Brazil, April 2000. Published in Revista Brasileira de Política e
Administração da Educação. Porto Alegre, v. 16, n. 2, p. 137-155, jul./dec. 2000

Introduction

I prepared this paper in response to key issues topping today’s international political and academic agenda. These include globalization, market economy, society of knowledge and sustainable human development.  Juxtaposed with these concepts at the international level are acute social problems such as poverty, discrimination, inequality and unemployment.  These are chronic problems in Latin America.  Surmounting them requires, first of all, renewed efforts to craft comprehensive, relevant public policies with the input of various government agencies and the private sector, the State and civil society. In the second place, it requires a management system capable of translating public policies into concrete realities in society.

The paper makes reference to basic concepts about social policy, focusing on the role of education and knowledge, job creation and the promotion of civic and political citizenship.  It is imbedded in the many initiatives underway in Latin America to build a citizen-centered society, developing new education and employment initiatives based on a new ethic of collective human coexistence.    

Globalization, its opportunities and risks

Social policy and its basic foundations, especially education and employment, are caught up in the general effervescence that characterizes the beginning of the twenty-first century.   This effervescence pervades the economic and commercial spheres, as well as today’s political and cultural life.  It is evident within each country and in the context of international relations.   The fact is that today new and powerful scenarios are having a profound impact on society, education and human activity in general.   For the purposes of this reflection, I confine my analysis to education and work as civic activities in the context of two scenarios of today’s unprecedented global transformation:  the new economic order and the new political order. 

The new economic order 

The main feature of the new economic order is globalization, defined as the internationalization of markets, investments, industry, information and the generation of knowledge and education.  Today, economic trade and social and cultural trends are toward globalization over regional, national and local processes.  This is not a new phenomenon; expanding frontiers and communications has occurred throughout human history.  In our part of the world, the 1992 celebration of the five centuries since of the “encounter of two worlds” as well as last year’s commemoration of the arrival of European navigators in Brazil are examples of how the Spaniards and Portuguese spearheaded expansion and globalization in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.  Five centuries later we witness a new phase in this historic globalization process.  There have been changes of protagonists, processes, times and spaces, largely driven by revolutions in transportation and in the realm of information and communications.  In fact, globalization today is the cause and effect of a new revolution, the microelectronic revolution, which is perhaps more aggressive and profound than the industrial revolution in the XIX century.  In this framework, a global information society has emerged, fostered by a new economy premised on the efficient use of knowledge. 

The new political order

The name of the new political order is democracy, which has extended into the far reaches of the planet, including Latin America.  It still is a democracy in the making, in so much so that informed citizens still are dissatisfied with its performance, according to a recent opinion study carried out in 17 Latin American countries by the Corporación Latinobarómetro based in Santiago, Chile.   The study shows that, while most people support a democratic form of government, barely 37% are satisfied with the way it is working.  While this is indicative of political awareness on the part of citizens, it also suggests that governments and societies must take urgent measures to surmount the shortcomings that have been identified and to construct politically effective and socially relevant and significant public institutions for citizens.  Be that as it may, a new structure for political relations between sovereign States has emerged from the new democratic order, based on what has become known as presidential diplomacy.  Increasingly, joint policy meetings are held by the presidents of the eight most developed countries, and by leaders of non-aligned countries, American and Ibero-American countries, and sub-regional communities.  Contemporary presidential diplomacy in the Americas has taken the form of the Hemispheric Summits of Heads of State and Government launched in 1994, as well as numerous meetings of Presidents of subregional blocs such as Mercosur, the Andean Community, CARICOM, and the Central American Community.  In some regions, presidential meetings are held semi-annually.  This serves as an indication that, in addition to their domestic political responsibilities, governments share growing international responsibilities for the future of humankind and that of their respective regions and subregions. 

To summarize, a new political institutionality has accompanied the globalization of the economy and human activity; it is characterized by an expanded international role for heads of state, legitimized by representative democracy.  Meanwhile, the devastating influence of economic and trade relations driven by powerful transnational corporations have a significant influence on the political activities of governments worldwide.  One of the challenges in this new economic and political context is that of defining the dialectic relationship between national sovereignty in purely political terms and international action primarily in economic and trade terms. 

Opportunities and risks

The vast quantity of literature produced in recent years on the globalization process underscores the many opportunities and risks it presents.  While it is argued that globalization presents opportunities and risks for all –countries, organizations and people – reality has shown that it offers more opportunities to those who establish the rules of the international economic and political game than to the followers, and more risks to the latter than to the former.  This leads to growing inequity in the distribution of the fruits of the current phase of the globalization process.  Income has become concentrated and social exclusion more widespread.  Inequity is particularly evident between rich and poor countries, since the international game favors the former at the expense of the latter.  Inequity is also evident within countries, whether they are rich or poor.  In both cases, the economic, social and cultural gap between communities and individuals is widening.  A look at recent developments in the United States economy, for example, reveals that social inequality is increasing even in the richest countries in the world.   In the nineties, the United States experienced a period of extraordinary economic growth, but it was an uneven growth, just as it has been in other parts of the world.  The richest 20% of the U.S. population became 15% richer in the past decade, while the poorest 20% improved their buying power by just 1% during the same period.       

The 1999 United Nations Report on Human Development1 presents an explanatory analysis and demonstrates how this phenomenon is particularly severe in the poorest countries.  Latin America currently shows the highest levels of income concentration and social inequality in the world.   The United Nations report also reveals comparative disadvantages between the poorest countries and the most developed countries.  These comparative disadvantages are directly related to the cumulative deficit in the areas of education, human resource development and access to knowledge.  

Moreover, a look at international statistics, recently presented by José Joaquín Brunner2, reveals that Latin America’s influence has decreased as the knowledge and investment required for various strategic activities has increased.  While Latin America represents 8.5% of the world population, it produces approximately 6% of the world’s Gross Domestic Product.  Public spending for education is 5.5% of the corresponding international rate.  Latin America produces less than 5% of international exports; it contributes less than 4% of the world’s engineers and scientists involved in research and development; its manufacturing exports account for less than 3% of the international total; and, its contribution to the international information and technology market is barely 2%.  Latin American scientists author fewer than 2% of international publications; it accounts for just 1% of Internet hosts; and just 0.2% of all international industrial patents are registered by Latin Americans.

These statistics confirm unequivocally that the more essential knowledge is required for different activities, the less influence Latin America has in today’s world.  In other words, Latin America is facing a phenomenal deficit in the area of scientific and technological expertise.  This has clear implications for education and employment opportunities.

Similar disparities are found in terms of basic information and communications infrastructure.  In Latin America, for example, newspaper circulation is three times lower than in developed countries.  There are three times fewer radios and televisions.  The ratio of cable television subscribers and cellular telephone consumers is 1 to 9, and 1 to 10 for personal computer use.  The ratio of computer users connected to the Internet is 1 to 58.3 

Together, these figures indicate a tremendous comparative disadvantage in a world characterized by increasing globalization of human activity.  Existing information regarding connection to the Internet is particularly worrisome given that virtual technology is crucial to communications and access to local, national and international data banks.  Access to data banks and to the worldwide information network makes it possible to conduct split-second analyses of patterns and dominant trends in any sphere of human activity in any part of the world.  This access makes it possible to make informed decisions and increase the efficiency in the production of goods and provision of services.  Lastly, access to information and knowledge facilitates solutions to the problems we face daily in our organizations and communities.  All of this suggests that Latin America urgently needs to improve its access to information and its capacity to generate and use knowledge. Only by doing so can its population achieve higher educational levels, participate more effectively in the construction of relevant and effective knowledge vis-à-vis the economic and social context in the countries of the region, and enjoy equal opportunity in terms of access and progress in the workplace.

To summarize, the few statistics presented here reveal that Latin America must undertake a great effort to address the lack of access to information and the under-utilization of scientific and technological knowledge.  Without such an effort, it will be unable to respond to the growing demands of the workplace and life in general.  This has led to enormous expectations in terms of the role of education in the overall picture of public policies and social management.

These observations introduce the discussion of the foundations of a sustainable social policy and a relevant pubic management in Latin America.  I rely heavily on selected subsidies provided in the report on Equity, Development and Citizenship, prepared by the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC)4 and a number of recent studies on social development in Latin America.5

According to the ECLAC report, “social policy must reflect a set of objectives, standards and systems whereby society undertakes to guarantee social, economic and cultural rights, and strives to create and consolidate capacities and opportunities for improving the quality of life and giving people greater freedom and influence in the decisions that affect them.”6  Applied to Latin America, my observations on social policy derive from a concept of public policy as a set of organized actions around common objectives that involve various government agencies and civil society, the State and the private sector.  This vision of “public” as a collective entity entails forging interinstitutional State-private sector alliances and broadening spaces for civil society participation.  The goal is to construct and reconstruct social institutions committed to promoting sustainable human development, with education and employment as its cornerstones. The enormous challenge is to arrive at a paradigm for sustainable development whose qualitative criteria is achieving high levels of equity and quality in human existence.7  In this context, poverty reduction represents an undeferable political commitment and ethical challenge for society as a whole.  In light of this commitment and this challenge, a sustainable and relevant social policy for all of society must assign priority to the most impoverished, excluded sectors of the population.  There are two crucial cornerstones to a sustainable, relevant social policy committed to achieving equity and promoting a new citizen-centered society:  education and employment.

Education as the first foundation of a social policy
committed to equity and citizenship

Education is directly linked to citizenship, preparation for the workplace, and achieving sustainable human development with social equity.  A relevant social policy, therefore, must make education its highest priority; the highest priority in the allocation of public spending; and the highest priority for civil society organizations, particularly the family, the church and social movements in our communities.  Attention must be focused on broadening educational coverage while simultaneously improving the quality of the educational supply at all levels.  Besides extending universal coverage from primary school to preschool and middle school, there must be considerable investment in the quality and relevance of education at all levels and in all areas.  In addition to the acquisition of basic academic content, it is necessary to foster the acquisition of skills and abilities associated with learning how to learn.  This objective is particularly important in terms of preparation for the complex world of information and communications.  It is also key to promoting democratic values, human rights, and social coexistence in a context of increasing urban violence and the rise in social, ethnic, and religious fundamentalism worldwide, including in industrial societies.

The statistics speak eloquently 

While educational statistics cannot show or explain everything, they can provide important clues.  In fact, an examination of statistical data makes it possible to highlight specific aspects of the diagnostic survey of education in Latin America and its relationship to employment and citizenship.  It is likewise possible to identify the problems and challenges currently facing Latin America.  The data reflect the overall situation in the region rather than the specific circumstances of a particular country or community.  Any generalization should therefore be interpreted cautiously.

From an historical perspective, the current rate of schooling in Latin America is relatively high for the population between the ages of 7 and 12, ages that traditionally correspond to compulsory primary education.  In 1995, the net rate of schooling for the population between the ages of 7 and 12 was 93%.  Moreover, according to figures from UNESCO, school enrolment increased by 7.9% annually between 1960 and 1992.  For this same period, middle school enrolment grew at an average annual rate of 6.2%, and there was an annual increase of 8.5% at the university level.  Illiteracy decreased from 34% in 1960 to 13% in 19928.  Today the illiteracy rate is below 10%. The average population growth rate was 2.2% annually during this same period.  In other words, school coverage has been significantly extended over the past four decades.

But the news is not all good.  For example, grade repetition rates in Latin America are among the highest in the world. This means that the system is inefficient. Education statistics for Latin America show that children generally attend elementary school for seven years yet, on average, reach only fourth grade.  This means that students repeat the same grade three out of seven years.  In other words, most students remain in the same grade for two years, nearly doubling the cost of educating each student.9  The most problematic level is first grade, which more than 40% of enrolled students repeat.  In absolute terms, this means that nearly eight million students annually repeat the first year of basic education in Latin America.  It should be emphasized that most repeating students did not attend kindergarten or preschool programs.  In light of this fact and the results of international empirical studies, we can now confirm that there is a significant correlation between a successful academic career and professional life and the attention paid to the quality of early childhood development and preschool education.  If we wish to contribute to reducing poverty among millions of young people in Latin America, therefore, a basic priority of educational policy must be a comprehensive early childhood care and education, especially for the poorest sectors of society.  Right now, an adjustment that is rapidly taking effect improves the statistics on grade repetition, not because the situation is actually improving at a similar rate, but because some countries are adopting a policy of automatic promotion throughout elementary school, regardless of academic performance.

School dropout in Latin America is another complex issue that requires further study to identify its causes and effects, and its possible solutions.  What we know so far is that fewer than half of students who enter elementary school complete it.  In other words, most young people leave the school system without having acquired the basic reading and writing, and math and science skills they need to work and become active members of society.  These young people are, in effect, functionally illiterate; they are unable to decode what they read and, as a result, they are not prepared for the workplace in an increasingly hi-tech society.10

Universal elementary education and the requirements of the labor market have increased pressure at the high school level.  Latin American school systems currently serve 64% of the population between the ages of 12 and 17.  However, only 36% of this population attends middle school (net rate of secondary schooling); while the rest are still enrolled in primary school either because of delayed entry or grade repetition.11  Latin American middle schools traditionally have offered two educational alternatives: one academically oriented and the other vocational.   Recent experiences in middle school education in Latin America reveal a trend toward a more comprehensive pedagogy that seeks to develop academic skills and technical proficiency simultaneously, based on the premise that the economy is gradually eliminating the division between intellectual and manual labor.  The school must follow suit.  Otherwise, its services, regardless of their possible merits in the short term, run the risk of becoming irrelevant and dysfunctional in the medium and long terms.  In an increasingly technological world, technical activities now require that students have an academic background that enables them to make informed decisions, to solve problems, and to decode and interpret coherently instructions and guidelines.  It will be increasingly difficult for young people without this kind of background to have access to quality job opportunities.  

There are obvious indications of social inequity in Latin American school systems.  For example, to a large extent private school students spend an average of 1,000 to 1,200 hours in the classroom annually, compared to an average of 500 to 600 hours for public school students.12  These figures show that students from relatively poor families spend 3 to 4 hours a day typically in public schools, while students from upper and upper middle class families generally attend private schools for 5 to 6 hours per day.  Though these differences do not exist in other cases, the general situation compels us to consider that while a country’s school system, including its public and private schools, should be, and frequently is, an instrument for promoting social equity and integration; it can also exacerbate social differences and discrimination. 

The political will to assign top priority to education in national and local government budgets is essential to addressing the historical education deficits in Latin America.  At this time, approximately 4.5% of Latin America’s Gross Domestic Product is spent on education.13  Given the enormous cumulative educational deficit, and in order not to be left behind, it might be necessary to double this figure for some time.  Moreover, it is critical to act now, since the train of history is rapidly gaining speed, which has a tremendous effect on our ability to surmount the cumulative deficit and respond to emerging needs.

International literature on education shows that the teacher and his or her teaching-learning methods are the master key to explaining levels of academic performance.  Latin America faces a daunting challenge given that 40% of its primary school teachers lack the academic credentials required to teach.  Moreover, they often employ authoritarian, lecture-style teaching methods that emphasize memory over creativity and reward conformity over critical thinking.14

Besides lacking the appropriate background, educators are poorly compensated.  Given the low salaries — which are typically lower in the nineties than they were in the eighties15 — it is very difficult to encourage and recruit good candidates into the teaching profession.  In many countries, teachers earn less than domestic workers and, on average, earn little more than street cleaners in our neighborhoods or groundskeepers in our cities.16  Nonetheless, in most Latin American countries, teachers’ salaries absorb more than two-thirds of public spending on education, a clear indicator that governments fail to assign sufficient priority to education in their budgets. The data likewise reveal that less than 1% of total public spending on education is used to purchase teaching materials.  According to empirical data, teaching materials significantly influence the quality of education, as they are inextricably linked to the teaching methods adopted.17 

The situation in Latin American universities is not very different.  The utter lack of attention to public universities throughout Latin America inhibits each country’s ability to construct and disseminate scientific and technological knowledge.  This is particularly the case in the countries where scientific research, particularly basic research, is primarily conducted in public universities. A good example is Brazil where, according to statistics generated by research institutes, more than 90% of scientific research is carried out by public higher education institutions.  This figure alone is enough to conclude that the lack of attention to public universities seriously compromises a country’s scientific development and academic performance at all educational levels.  In terms of the qualifications of university faculty, available data reveal that an only one in five faculty member in Latin America, including public and private universities, holds a doctoral degree.18  Brazil’s situation is quite favorable, particularly with respect to public universities.  According to a local report published in May 2000, 80% of the faculty of the University of São Paulo holds a doctoral degree.19  According to the same report, this figure drops to an average of 30% in São Paulo’s private universities.  In contrast, a growing number of private universities pay relatively higher salaries compared to public universities.   On the whole, however, the deficient qualifications of Latin American teaching faculties is attributable in part to poor compensation and professional incentives, which are not remotely comparable to those offered in other professions.  As a result, many of the best researchers and scientists leave the universities in search of better working and living conditions.  Fifty percent of faculty members who remain in the universities struggle to make a living and support their families by taking on one or more additional jobs.20 

Trends and challenges 

These few statistics do not tell the whole story, but they do tell part of it.  They show, for example, that school systems in Latin America face enormous challenges.  They show that, in many ways, teaching and learning methodologies, and organizational and administrative models in education have failed to keep pace with scientific and technological advances in other areas of knowledge.  They show that, although teachers teach, students often fail to learn because schools do not offer an atmosphere conducive to learning.   In fact, schools urgently need to adopt an active, constructive pedagogical paradigm that emphasizes learning over teaching.  Such a paradigm emphasizes learning how to learn, the catchphrase for lifelong education, which has become indispensable in today’s world of increasingly rapid and unpredictable change.

What else do the selected statistics show?  They show that, in many cases, funds allocated for public education are insufficient to address the educational problems and needs of the population.  In other cases, available resources are poorly distributed or inefficiently managed.  There are breakdowns in targeting and breakdowns in management.  In the worst-case scenarios, educational resources are simultaneously scarce, poorly distributed, and managed inefficiently.  While further study of these issues is required, there is a broad consensus around the need to increase the efficiency of school management and local administration of educational institutions, and to assign more resources to education at all levels.  Countless school and university buildings in Latin America are in deplorable condition.  Laboratories are obsolete. Libraries are in abysmal shape.  Technological information and communication infrastructure is limited. Educational materials are lacking.  Teachers must be better trained and enjoy better working conditions if they are to shoulder their responsibilities.

If I had to choose one priority out of this array of problems and challenges, I would pick the last area mentioned.  That is, I would choose to invest more resources in raising the quality of the teaching profession at all educational levels, adopting two basic strategies:  improve the initial and continuing education of teachers, and improve their current and future working conditions.  These are complementary strategies. We need better schools in order to offer a better education and cultural development.  But if we want better schools, we need better educators; and, if we want better educators, we must provide better working conditions, better salaries and higher professional incentives.  This logic applies to any field in any country in the world.  Meanwhile, in some of our school systems, both public and private, it would seem that there are still those who believe that becoming a teacher is simply a matter of vocation or interest.  This view disregards the importance of professionalizing the teaching career and adopting a system that fairly compensates teachers.  Vocation and genuine interest are important to teaching — just as they are to practicing law, economics, medicine, engineering, or any other profession — as long as they are accompanied by dignified working conditions.  One such condition is that teachers have a human right to fair compensation for their work.21

There are additional national and regional challenges facing current Latin American education and society.  For example, there is compelling evidence that basic knowledge of language and science, as vehicles for communication and active participation in the workplace, have been crucial to promoting sustainable human development and citizenship.  The profound and rapid economic and technological transformations taking place internationally underscore the importance of education, especially basic education, in the construction and distribution of knowledge.  It is precisely in this context of internationalization that a new political and intellectual effervescence can be observed in the field of education throughout the hemisphere.  The fact is that many Latin American countries are experimenting with new education reform initiatives at the local and national levels.  Innovations and reforms currently underway are focused primarily on the following areas:  the central role of the school and the quality of the school environment; the curriculum and learning process; the quality of teaching; the application of technology in education; and, new models of local education management.22  The general objectives of the reform initiatives revolve around increasing the efficiency, equity, relevance, and quality of education.23

In this context, the governments of the hemisphere held the Summits of the Americas in 1994 and 1998. In April 2001 Quebec will host the next Summit of the Americas. The Second Summit of the Americas, held in Chile, was particularly important for education. This historic occasion spurred academic institutions and international organizations to study and evaluate local and national education reform initiatives and to propose alternatives for regional cooperation in education.  In this context, the Organization of American States prepared a survey of the situation, trends, and challenges in the field of education in the Americas and their implications for crafting public policies and strategies for collective action, including specific strategies for educational administration.24   The survey identified the following trends:

1. There is increasing pressure to improve the quality of education at all levels and in all areas of schooling, particularly at the basic school level, including early childhood education and development.

2. The overall rise in enrolment and the demands generated by the conditions and needs of modern society have meant that it is increasingly important to invest in middle school education, with particular emphasis on the intellectual, cultural, and technological development of young people.

3. There is growing social awareness of the importance of education in promoting citizenship, the exercise of democracy, respect for human rights, and environmental protection.

4. There is increased pressure to make educational programs more coherent and relevant, in order to equip youth with effective tools that prepare them for the workplace and society, based on the intellectual and technical abilities required by an ever-changing labor market.

5. It is increasingly important to invest in the application of information and communication technologies in teaching and learning and in the management of schools and educational systems. Simultaneously, there is a growing awareness of the need to adopt mechanisms to close the digital divide that separates rich and poor nations as well as the individuals within both rich and poor nations.

6. Growing emphasis is placed on the central role of schools and universities as fundamental social institutions.  At the same time, there is a marked trend toward increased school autonomy and local school governance.  In addition, many Latin American governments are sponsoring reforms that include the adoption of national curriculum guidelines together with evaluation systems to assess continues performance of educational institutions, teachers, and students. 

These trends reflect some of the new education policy initiatives recently adopted in a number of countries in Latin America.  But education is only the first foundation of a sustainable, relevant social policy in Latin America.  It is followed by job creation.

Employment as the second foundation of a social policy
committed to equity and citizenship

The social impact of education is closely linked to job creation.  While the effects of education on equity and citizenship are only observable in the long term, job creation has an immediate impact because it creates the material conditions necessary to support the worker and his or her family in the here and now.

The employment situation today – in terms of overt unemployment, high unemployment rates among youth, women and disenfranchised groups, underemployment and declining quality of jobs — is the most pressing social policy issue in Latin America.  The situation has worsened in recent years due to the relative decline in economic growth rates combined with a significant increase in unemployment rates in urban and rural areas.  Last year, the urban unemployment rate in 10 Latin American countries fluctuated between 10 and 18 percent.  This partly explains the lack of progress in poverty reduction towards the end of the last decade and the rise in the absolute number of people living in poverty in developing countries.25

Job creation must, therefore, be the main focus of economic policy and social dialogue between the government, business community and workers.  Clearly there are no easy solutions.  It is imperative, in the first instance, to create a macroeconomic environment conducive to stable, sustainable development, including incentives for productive investment and support for businesses that generate employment, particularly medium, small and micro enterprises.  Besides a job creation policy, special attention should be paid to worker training and refresher training programs. This alone requires close collaboration between youth leadership training centers and the productive sector, and between both of these and the school system.

Labor flexibility is currently a key issue on the international agenda and in social dialogue concerning labor policy in Latin American countries.  The debate centers on developing and adopting methods of contracting goods and services that respond to the current requirements of the workplace while protecting the social rights of workers.  The current trend is toward increasing flexibility in the contracting of goods and services in a context of escalating, and often unpredictable, technological change.  Meanwhile, negotiations currently underway have clearly demonstrated that more flexibility in contracting goods and services is not a magic solution or panacea for resolving the current problems surrounding labor demand.  While it is true that negotiations are moving toward greater flexibility in contracting services, citizens are also increasingly aware of the pressing need for more uniform and secure social service systems.  These are needed in order to maintain the quality of employment, provide flexible vocational education and training systems and, most importantly, guarantee workers rights, including retirement and unemployment benefits, emergency employment, and other types of social protection such as continuity of health care and ongoing schooling for children of unemployed workers.

Social dialogue is an invaluable tool for addressing these and other problems in the workplace.  Renewed efforts are needed to develop an efficient and equitable labor policy that protects the collective interest and creates an environment conducive to job creation.  It is particularly important to adopt measures to increase the effectiveness of collective bargaining so that we can face together the challenges of competitiveness imposed by economic and technological changes at the national and international levels.

Education and employment 

Employment, as an essential means of promoting equity and sustainable human development, is directly linked to education.  In this context, a problem traditionally faced by school systems — a problem brought about by initial demands for a number of educational reforms now underway — is the increasing perception that schools fail to respond effectively to constantly shifting and largely unpredictable labor market conditions.  In the Declaration of the 1998 Presidential Summit in Santiago, the Heads of State of the Americas acknowledged that the lack of academic preparation and mastery of basic skills for work continues to plague large sectors of the population.  The Heads of State likewise recognized that the gap between the knowledge acquired in school and the skills required by the workplace and society demand an urgent and concerted response that is beyond the real capacity of traditional education programs. Economic globalization, international trade liberalization and accelerated technological change all have important implications for reforming educational policy and practice at all levels and in all areas of schooling.

Policymakers face a dual challenge in approaching the issue of transition between school and employment.  The first challenge is how to incorporate huge contingents of adults who are outside the formal school system into programs that offer adequate training for productive employment.  The second challenge has to do with pedagogical approaches and models that ensure that schools impart the knowledge and skills required by a constantly changing workplace.  The workplace is currently considered to be a determining factor in policymaking and strategies for action in the field of education. Policy approaches are particularly crucial.  The premise that education creates jobs is false.  Job creation is a function of a country’s macroeconomic policy, in the context of how international economic and political forces play out internally.  What the school system can do is to provide an environment and opportunities that prepare youth to become active members of society.  This means that the school must adopt a broad-based pedagogical approach that fosters a solid academic foundation in conjunction with a general preparation for the working world.  Once again, such an approach must emphasize learning over teaching, investigation over memorization, and construction over transmission.

Citizen rights and political commitments

The third concern of a relevant social policy is related to citizenship, defined in terms of civil rights and political engagement.  Understood in terms of civil rights entitlements, citizenship has to do with people’s ability to exercise individual autonomy and human freedom in the context of their communities and society, including the school, which would allow us to talk about school citizenship. Understood as political engagement in the collective future of society, citizenship has to do with individual participation in politics and in community-based organizations.  Being a citizen, then, means exercising a legitimate right to benefit from the State’s public activities.  Being a citizen implies freedom of opinion and political participation, the right to culture and education, the right to public health and safety, the right to justice, employment opportunities and social security.  Conversely, being a citizen means taking an interest in local, national and international issues and contributing toward strengthening one’s social networks.  Being a citizen involves solidarity in undertaking collective projects and other activities aimed at promoting the common good. 

This integral approach to rights and responsibilities in society requires developing civic citizenship in terms of individual freedom as well as strengthening political citizenship in terms of participation in decision-making processes that affect our collective future.  It means promoting respect for economic, social and cultural rights including access to the tools needed to engage in social dialogue and in the exchange of information and knowledge.  Lastly, it means combining policies at the government level with the new practices of social movements and the social capital generated by private initiative and civil society.  This comprehensive approach broadens the public sphere so as to foster a deeper awareness of the responsibilities of all social actors in the generation and use of public wealth.26

Strengthening citizenship by engaging all social actors in public affairs is key to addressing deteriorating social cohesion, exploding urban violence, the loss of collective identity and weakened social protection systems, including public safety nets and society’s traditional social protection networks comprising the family, the church and the local community.  The loss of cultural identity and social capital can erode social institutions and even call into question the political legitimacy of government leadership, with varying impacts on democratic systems as we have recently seen in some Latin American countries.

This reality underscores the importance of strengthening solidarity, from the standpoint of the State as well as private enterprise.   In this context, it is important to reiterate that “public” should not be confused with “State,” but instead should be understood as the sphere of collective interests of the community and of society as a whole.  This concept of  “public” implies that the State and private sector should promote more active participation by social actors in genuinely democratic institutions.   The concept of “public” also implies developing civil society mechanism to strengthen solidarity within and between communities, so as to foster a culture of coexistence conducive to qualitative forms of collective human life in school and society.

By way of conclusion

I want to close with a brief reflection on the three foundations of a sustainable, relevant social policy in Latin America in the context of globalization and its underlying competitive economic model.  This subject raises a lot of questions.   It is worth asking, for example, how the new economy of globalization encourages or discourages the strengthening of a citizenry politically committed to advancing the collective interests of our communities?  To what extent does today’s market-driven global economy run the risk of eroding the very social capital that the underlying economic model requires? 

The 2000 ECLAC Report calls attention to the enormous controversy surrounding these issues.  There is the view, on the one hand, that key components of sustainable human development, such as education and employment, are human rights recognized by the countries through the Charter of the Organization of American States and the International Covenant of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights of the United Nations.  On the other hand, there is the notion that the essential elements of sustainable human development, including education and employment, are goods or commodities that each individual must obtain through personal effort. It is important, then, to revisit the questions posed by ECLAC:  Where does the world of commodities end, and where does the world of rights begin?  Where does the world of consumers end, and where does the world of citizens begin?28

Promoting citizenship is clearly at the center of the paths toward dispelling this critical dilemma.  Therefore, I am hopeful about the proposals of a genuine citizen school29 whether public or private.  I am hopeful about a true pedagogy of citizenship, conceived by and premised on teachers, students, parents and community representatives working together to envision and promote their common educational interests.  I am hopeful about pedagogical initiatives that emphasize learning over teaching, construction over repetition, creation over memorization, learning how to learn and living together over merely living as a means of cementing the exercise of citizenship for a lifetime.

In the same vein, I am hopeful about the development of new approaches to employment and occupation, since we are living in a time of evolving new models of social organization and coexistence.  I am hopeful about thinkers who are committed to the conceptualization of a citizen-centered employment paradigm based on an analysis of the outcomes of social dialogue and collective bargaining.  In undertaking this task, it is important to keep in mind past experiences and current circumstances — including the expanding role of women and other social groups in the labor market — and provide a broader, more secure system to protect the social rights of workers. I am hopeful about the development of more flexible working practices accompanied by garanteed social benefits, enabling us to respond to our personal aspirations and to promote the common interests of our local communities and society as a whole.

In this paper I tried to reiterate that education, employment, and citizenship are three inextricable components of a comprehensive, relevant social policy in Latin America in the context of today’s global world.  It is felt that these fundamental components largely define our path through life, a life whose essence is characterized by evolution, change and transformation.  According to Ortega y Gasset “life is a gerund, not a participle.”  For the purposes of our reflection, such a view suggests conjugating the practice of education, work, and citizenship as gerunds.  In this way, we will be educating, working, and acting together in real time to face the economic, social, and cultural challenges of our communities and society at large.

>> Voltar