D IRECTIONS IN E DUCATIONAL P LANNING : S YMPOSIUM TO H ONOUR THE W ORK OF F RANOISE C AILLODS L ES O RIENTATIONS DE LA P LANIFICATION DE L DUCATION : S YMPOSIUM EN L HONNEUR DU TRAVAIL

EN L HONNEUR DU TRAVAIL ACCOMPLI PAR F RANOISE C AILLODS

Thursday 3 July Friday 4 July 2008 Jeudi 3 juillet Vendredi 4 juillet 2008

Educational planning in Latin America New perspectives for traditional issues

Margarita Poggi

Working document Document de travail

International Institute for Educational Planning Institut international pour la planification de lducation

Educational planning in Latin America New perspectives for traditional issues Margarita Poggi1 The Symposium on Directions in Educational Planning organized by IIPE/UNESCO with the purpose of disseminating the extensive work done by Franoise Caillods at the Institute throughout three decades - encourages us to ponder over the tradition built around this issue and, at the same time, to approach the most appropriate new trends to understand, design and develop educational policies. This paper will focus on some considerations about educational planning based on the experience gathered in Latin America and in the light of the main challenges set out by educational systems, which result in demands and specific requirements to plan the policies of this sector. The starting point is one of the ideas raised by F. Caillods (1991) in the sense that planning should adapt to specific contexts and their challenges in order to direct the decision making process at the educational policy field. I. Planning in the Latin American Ministries of Education A quick look at the offices2 responsible for planning in the Ministries of Education of the countries in the region will allow introducing some preliminary considerations on this issue. On the one hand, a wide diversity of positions and ranks in the planning departments may be seen in formal organization charts in the ministries. In some cases they are under the Minister (or his/her desk or executive secretariat) as is the case in Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador and Mexico, just to give some examples; in other cases they are under the Secretariats (or undersecretariats) of Education as it occurs in Argentina, Chile and Honduras, which shows, in turn, their different hierarchies. The organization charts analysed show a less clear relationship between these planning departments and the different offices they are included in and their relationship with substantive areas (whether they are related to levels within the educational system or key institutional issues for ministries) or with administration and budget areas. In this sense, planning departments may hold a hierarchical position in connection with those areas, but this occurs in very few cases and, mainly, as advisory boards of the minister or vice-minister (Brazil and Costa Rica, for example). In most cases, on the contrary, they are mainly under the secretariats (or equivalent offices), and they are incorporated in substantive areas (Argentina, Mexico); in other cases, they are more related to the administration and budget offices (Brazil, Chile). In connection with the areas under the planning departments, in general it may be seen a
Head of IIEP/UNESCO Buenos Aires. We refer to offices in the most generic sense of the term, since a quick revision of the organization charts of the Ministries of Education (or their equivalent) of Latin America shows that offices in charge of planning may be ranked as secretariats, undersecretariats, national/general bureaux or just bureaux, as the case may be. Annex I shows a list with the links to the WebPages of ministries and their organization charts, which have been visited for updating purposes of the available information on the subject.
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strong coincidence: they mostly gather the offices producing statistical information, programming or planning offices in the strict sense and monitoring and evaluation offices (not only of programmes and policies, but also of educational quality). There also appear, though to a lesser extent, offices connected with studies and research or budgetary issues, and the planning department closely related to the administrative area. In the latter case, it may also be a part of the school infrastructure area. There is practically no ministry of education that lacks an office specifically oriented to the planning task, though in these cases, the planning functions connected with other offices may not be ruled out. Based on the above, the evidence shows that there is no simple or single definition about the most appropriate location for the planning department in the ministries of education, since it is the relationship with other areas and the tasks assigned to it that define in each country the role they are expected to play when defining and developing the educational policies. Certainly, taking into account only formal organization charts of the ministries of education of the region is not enough, because it falls within a traditional paradigm about organizations, but it is useful for a first approach to the issue. From another perspective that goes beyond the foregoing analysis and takes up discourses and practices on educational planning, there are critical discourses about the tasks typical of the area that seem to be related to a reaction towards the prevailing characteristics adopted in the region during the last decades, that is, its technocratic version. Technocracy separates technical areas from the strictly political ones, as far as planning is concerned, and consequently it is reduced to a mere instrumental or operative version. It must be mentioned here that discourses recognize this aspect only in rare occasions, but many times more complex conceptions of planning entail a technocratic conception in solving educational problems (Matus, 2007). In other words, educational planning discourses and practices are not consistent and, even when they claim or adhere to the strategic-situational planning conception, in practice they reduce it to operative techniques. On the contrary, the purpose of this paper is to highlight, from different viewpoints, the impossibility to artificially split both dimensions (political and technical ones) when defining and developing educational policies. Planning is the quintessential political task; the technical component will complement the capacity to identify and solve problems, the efficiency to find better ways and alternatives, the appropriate management to accompany political actions. At the same time, this paper intends to reveal the challenges planning offices are currently facing (and continue to face in the future) with respect to key educational issues in Latin American countries. II. Some key issues on educational planning in the region II. 1. Building the educational policy agenda One of the conditions, defined by Matus (1998), to consolidate planning, is fundamental to shape its role in the State. In this regard, he states that planning should find a way to functionally become a part of the State management. Concurrently, it should create analysis categories suitable for the environment in which it intends to operate. The way in which it gets involved in management and the value over its analysis categories have a bearing on its effectiveness. 3

Based on different papers on public policies (Aguilar Villanueva, 2000) it is known that not every problem necessarily manages to be part of the public agenda and, consequently, be a government priority. It is also known that the agenda sets up the government tone and management. In the case of the educational sector, like in other areas of government, the agenda is understood to be a set of problems, demands or issues that have been selected and prioritised to be the object of specific actions; that is, they have turned into objects in which it was decided to get involved. Considering the educational trends included in the educational agendas in Latin America during the last decades, it must be recognized that no doubt the school offer expansion has been a part of the agenda and facilitated the important progress in the basic education of children and youths (particularly primary and lower secondary education). However, the problem of social and educational inequalities still continues with less conclusive effects, since it is very difficult for children and youths to finish their primary studies, least of all secondary studies, especially when this problem is analysed in specific groups in the school population. Indicators still show a clear disadvantage for students coming from poor sectors, native groups and those living in a rural environment. Besides, the educational quality issue in the region has been (and is) dealt with in political discourses; however, beyond the dissemination of evaluation experiences (either through national systems or regional and international studies) it is still an issue of concern in the policies because little progress has been done in this sense. We will get back to these topics later when dealing with the main educational trends in the region in item III. It is known that the way in which an issue is dealt with in the agenda is not merely accidental, but it is not completely planned either. On the contrary, it means a complex and loosely structured process in which the most specialised and consistent knowledge may be a key element providing relevant evidence. However, there are other factors involved to turn it into an issue, such as the degree of specificity to define a problem, the area of social importance, the temporary relevance, the technical complexity, the existence of action precedents on the subject, the controversial and polemic nature in connection with the legitimacy created to assume the conflict and the interest to get involved in the subject. It is also true that there are no criteria completely agreed to indicate the moment in which the solution to certain problems is reached and on which educational policies are involved. The solution is never true or false; in many cases there is a lack of an ultimate proof about the solution of the problem, either because it has not been definitively raised or because as there is a progress in connection with some established goals, it is possible that there appear other new aspects (or new problems) to get involved. Therefore, in a strict sense, some authors speak about the re-solution of problems. Not thinking about the contents of the agenda, but in general terms about the performance through which some ministries have developed certain educational policies in the region, an alarm that caught the attention of different actors is associated with the proliferation of plans and programmes on several subjects that, on the one hand, land at the schools of an educational system and, on the other hand, may be traced in the ministries of the region like successive geological layers. Though this trend starts to be reverted, the impact on the systems of the region may not be ignored, particularly because of the charge entailed many times for school actors and, therefore, the difficulty to include such programmes in a context that provides them some sense. 4

With reference to this item, it is important to point out that building the education agenda refers to a fundamental issue in the planning field such as the direction of processes, appropriate to certain established goals. Insofar as this aspect remains in the educational policies, risks resulting from a clear distance between a methodological command of the situation and the substantive knowledge of educational processes are reduced. II. 2. Planning in decentralized educational systems In many cases, educational policies implemented in various countries of the region tended to introduce transformations in the traditional patterns that structured the educational management. These interventions emphasised the tendency towards decentralisation or deconcentration and, in some cases, have modified sector financing strategies (Caillods, 2003). In decentralised systems, central States transferred a series of responsibilities to sub national government levels (or they retained or recovered their own historical responsibilities) and assumed new roles such as pedagogic innovation, technical assistance, evaluation, production of knowledge and information, definition of curricular policies (with wide margins ranging from the national curriculum to common contents or parameter proposals), equity policies, etc. But even in those systems that in the strict sense are still centralized, there appear sub national units responsible for different functions (in regions, departments or municipalities) that bear highly variable performance margins according to the regulations in force. For several circumstances, these have also turned into units involved in the educational planning. For all of the above, it may be stated that educational system management is increasingly polycentric as a result of transferring educational services and responsibilities to other government levels, growing institutional autonomy, the new role of central States and sub national entities and their corresponding capacities and resources. Furthermore, old educational bureaucracies are no longer bureaucratic in the rationalist and Weberian sense of the word. In too many cases they have turned into diminished, merely formal bureaucracies, unable to orient the life of school institutions towards democratically agreed national objectives. In this context, planning with voluntarist, imperative and centralized characteristics (Caillods, 1991) have been strongly questioned. Therefore, it is necessary to rebuild a State in the different levels provided with competent human resources, with careers oriented towards professionalisation and equipped with technological and information resources that allow ensuring mechanisms required for the compliance of educational policy objectives. There are different types of policy coordination agencies in the countries of the region bearing decentralized systems (the Education Federal Council in Argentina; the National Council of Education SecretariesCONSED- and the National Union of Municipal Education Leaders UNDIME- both from Brazil), which act as representative levels of government officials responsible for educational systems (or of some of their levels). Important aspects of educational policy are discussed and agreed upon there. By means of a specific procedure, established by the National Agreement for the Modernization of the Basic and Normal Education (ANMEB) signed in 1992, Mexico defines the strategy upon which three fundamental actors of the educational policy of that country the Public Education Secretariat (SEP), state governments through their corresponding secretariats and the teachers union agree to significant guidelines of the educational policy 5

that will be fulfilled on different legal bases and government programmes. Apart from the levels of higher responsibility in the governments defining the orientations of the educational policy, it is also in the political-technical levels where most decisions are defined and implemented. Precisely, changes in the government structure of educational systems, with multiple areas expanding the decision-making levels, demonstrates the importance to analyse the determinations (that is, frameworks or limits) that have a bearing on them when definitions are called for. Actors that have multiplied, with different responsibility levels, are part of a complex map for the management of educational systems of the region, where the institutional capacity of ministries is defined (and accumulate) by means of the articulation of macro and micro regulation-oriented working practices. Also, ensuring a recomposition of the legitimacy of the State at its different levels is a task that several ministries of the region are involved. This legitimacy is consolidated both in the capacity to orient policies on an agreed social justice principle, and in the capacity to manage the changes required in that framework. II. 3. Time frames Planning implies different ideas: according to the most classical conceptions, it means the establishment of purposes, the systematic and strict analysis, and entails the anticipation of scenarios as well as possible action courses to adopt. The idea of a lineal rationality, where temporal sequence steps could be artificially separated has been long discussed. Studies on the design, implementation, management and evaluation of policies have already shown that they are processes only analytically and artificially separated, even if waves in those studies have highlighted some of them as the case may be (Aguilar Villanueva, 2000). No doubt, the planning and strength of the prospective capacity of ministries are indissolubly related. One of the most urgent problems of planning departments is to solve the immediate day-to-day matters, typical of the everyday pace of management, and the consideration of the medium and long term issues where the sense and direction of a policy are built. In short, it is the mere concept of time that sets the grounds for action of a planning department. Hargreaves (1996) points out the importance to distinguish between a monochronic and a polychronic concept of time. The latter is particularly important for policies and is characterized by the simultaneity, the sensitiveness to the context, the orientation towards the relationship among people and not only towards procedures. The first one refers exclusively to a merely administrative framework to understand organizations; the second one, however, allows approaching the socio-political dimension of change. Complexity, density and simultaneity are typical elements of this dimension, and are also characteristics that set a limit to their foreseeable nature. A conception of planning that links the short and the medium and long term is oriented by a polychronic concept of time, requires structural conditions to develop. However, different factors affect this development. On the one hand, there is the high rotation of ministers. A PREAL paper (unfortunately outdated in terms of the information provided because it does not cover the most recent period, but eloquent in terms of the analysis performed) underlined, as a good sign, that the average rotation of ministers of education in Latin America had turned from 2.45 years in the 1969-1990 period to 2.81 years in the 19916

2000 period. This average is even higher in the education management of federal countries, at their different levels. Although the above mentioned document states that ministerial instability does not hold a unique relationship with education policy management, no doubt they are both affected. Rotation of ministers is practically simultaneous to that of the political-professional technical staff of a ministry, where, among other causes, there is a lack of true professional careers at state agencies. This is a second factor that must be stressed because it is a characteristic of the region. It is true, there have been efforts in various countries to strengthen the capacity of States by offering training to government officials, but they have been poorly systematized and sustainable throughout time, since they were subject to the ups and downs of each government context. Only a few exceptions in this trend could be mentioned where long-term programmes aimed at different public officers have been developed during the last years, which involved a range of levels in the government (Mexico). On the other hand, it may be said that training has to be complemented with the redesign of professional careers and the consolidation of common guidelines in various levels of the educational system management. Unlike the above, the political immediatism based on the ephemeral nature of management, especially if time required to introduce changes in the educational system is considered, adds up to a nave voluntarism (even entailing the best intentions) and ends up therefore to outline a kind of performance of planning departments that does not allow to respond to the complexity of problems to be approached. III. Old and new problems in educational policies in Latin America: Implications for planning It may be seen that the great issues of the educational policies of the region refer, to a certain extent, to the old problems of their societies and educational systems. However, the fact that they remain in the agendas is due to two factors: one, it has to do with failed attempts (some of them in part, it is true) to solve them in the past, therefore they are still included in the agenda. But, on the other hand, it is necessary to point out that, on a similar background, these problems adopt new expressions or structures. Their existence in the agendas calls for an update of diagnosis and makes them more suitable for the current situation, which no doubt means to cast a more precise and accurate glance to understand the context and the design of strategies more consistent with this view. Also, it is important to mention that the purpose of this item is not to exhaust all the topics that may be included in an agenda or to deal with the specific educational problems of each country of the region; on the contrary, it tries to underline the priority trends for the education policies where planning departments are (or should be) actively involved. III. 1. General trends, whats new in the classical issues? Social and educational inequality In the countries of the region, social inequality is closely related to the possibilities and limits of the educational policy margins. The probability to be included in the education system is higher in the richest quintile of the population (especially when compared to the poorest quintile). Indeed, except in the primary level which is practically universalised, coverage rates in the initial and secondary levels are directly related to the income level of families and to the 7

family school capital of that child or youngster. Furthermore, it is important to bear in mind that the probability to access, remain and learn at school is significantly higher in an urban rather than in a rural population. Besides, trends show that educational inequalities tend to move to the higher levels of the educational system (higher secondary and university levels) and to the early stages of education (three and four years old). It is necessary to say that, in a context of extremely unequal societies, a higher attendance to the secondary level of education is closely associated with a strong accent of the stratified nature of the teaching institutional offer. While traditional or modern elites send their children to full-time schools and with a bilingual curriculum offer (in general, Spanish and English) that provide at the same time better and various contents, popular sectors (whether from the cities or from rural environments) tend to go to institutions with higher deficiencies as to the infrastructure, curricular offer and resources in general (Tenti Fanfani, 2003). The territorial nature of the educational offer supports this tendency towards school segmentation. In certain contexts, fragmentation and hierarchisation of school systems has attained such significance and quality that it is increasingly difficult to think about it as a homogeneous system that tends to fulfil the same functions and attain the same objectives. Education inequality in each level of the education system strongly determines the probability to access and finish education in the subsequent level, mainly due to the knowledge transmitted and the cognitive and attitudinal abilities acquired by students. Among the strategies prioritised in the region, it may be said that one of them has been to diversify or make the education offer flexible in order to meet diversity. However, it must be taken into account because many times that diversification results in an undervalued offer that makes education gaps deeper. Even though it has been said many times that the effective action that allows reducing social and educational gaps calls for comprehensive or intersectorial policies, it is necessary to state the great efforts they require and the difficulty to be implemented. Nevertheless, the analysis suggests that it is still a relevant ambition that does not annul or delegitimise the capacity of education ministries to participate in reducing these gaps from their areas of responsibility. Thus, democratisation will not be merely understood as an extension of school careers, without paying attention to other fundamental aspects: that is, to effectively ensure equal access to knowledge, which is closely related to the quality issue. The educational quality There is a consensus to criticise the idea of quality disseminated in the region in the 1980s and especially in the 1990s, because it is considered to simplify and reduce the multiple dimensions it refers to. Several countries of the region are doing their efforts to work in this line. Also, OREALC/UNESCO has built a position that is expressed in the idea of educational quality proposed in the last PRELAC meeting (2007), where it is said that education quality, as a fundamental right, apart from being effective and efficient, must respect the rights of everybody, be relevant, pertinent and equal. To exercise the right to education is essential to develop the personality and implement the other rights. This idea suggests a wider and more complex glance to the quality issue; underlines the right to education, which is based on the following principles: it must be compulsory, free and bear the non-discrimination right. Another dimension is relevance, which refers to different aspects, mainly, the development of knowledge and competences necessary to participate in 8

the different areas of social life and build projects in connection with others. The relevance may also be analysed with respect to educational goals which, typical of a given time and context, are in line with a political and social project and provide sense to the practices developed at the schools included in the educational system. Yet, pertinence and equity suggest, in the first case, to meet the different needs of individuals and contexts, so that the education is important to people coming from different social and cultural stages; in the second case, it means to ensure equal access to a quality education for the whole population, ensuring the conditions (resources and help) required. The concern for aspects wider than the ones traditionally considered in the conception of the educational quality (effectiveness and efficiency), consequently suggests an interesting basic reconsideration that results in defining policies for the region. In this sense, it may be said that even though the educational quality issue has been included in the agenda of the last two decades, in recent years it has adopted a complexity that not only calls for different evaluation strategies (and thus review national evaluation systems), but basically a more comprehensive approach to improve it. The learning quality is always the result of a combination of school and social factors reciprocally connected. Apart from social and family conditions, there are fundamental learning conditions associated with the learning interest, which is also built as a result of good school practices. Systemic factors add up to them (building resources and school equipment, teaching working conditions, updated and pertinent curricular designs, strategies to follow-up school processes of children and youngsters with learning difficulties, etc.) such as a good school, well-trained teachers, adequate strategies and methods for the characteristics of the student population. In the region, only during the last years, the educational quality issue from this wider and complex viewpoint has been strengthening the agendas of the ministries. Partly because the gathered experience has set the boundaries to the academic results; partly because, even though these are unavoidable dimensions of the issue, social and educational factors that are part of it, as it has already been said, require policies that are more comprehensive than the ones already promoted. Financing education Latin America assigns an average of approximately 5% of its GDP to education (year 2005). As a region, it is ranked second after North America and Western Europe, which assign an average of 5.7% per annum. However, it must be taken into account that this is only one of the financial effort measures that each country devotes to their educational systems and must not be analysed out of this context. In some cases, they are high if compared to their economies and in other cases because of the low school population. In the same sense, there is empirical evidence in the region on the fact that global sector investment grew in the 1990s, but in many cases it has not but offset what has been lost in the previous decade (Morduchowicz and Duro, 2007). However, it is still proved that financial efforts are uneven and low in average, especially when compared to the investment of more developed countries. It is also important to overcome reductionism that limits the discussion only to the most efficient use of resources; especially because it resulted in different controversies. In this sense, regardless of the fact that the ineffectiveness in the use of available resources must be reduced, at the same time it is 9

necessary to significantly increase investment in the sector, especially if willing to achieve some goals set for 2015 (universalise initial and primary education, raise secondary education coverage to 75% and eradicate illiteracy among adults, among others). Countries in the region are already developing some strategies, such as new financing laws and/or laws providing for a different allocation of resources of the sector. Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Chile are clear examples of this. These regulations require further planning tasks to make those goals effective and feasible. III. 2. Some specific topics Recognising new subjects at institutions and educational systems Education systems in the region call for education strategies to meet the needs of the diversity characterising the new population included in the systems. In strict sense, it is not a question of new subjects, since they have been attending schools for decades, but it may be said they that have remained, to a certain extent, unnoticed. Just to provide some examples, very different from one another, that allow illustrating this situation: on the one hand, pupils and students with ages highly above the average in primary and secondary levels, coming from the most disadvantaged groups (as a result of a combined effect of repetition and/or temporary dropouts and new admissions to the system); the growing attendance of youngsters in adult education levels, partly because of social questions but also of education conditions at the secondary level, that has remained almost impassive in spite of the attempts to change it. All of these groups require the launch of institutional and learning strategies that allow meet their singular characteristics to ensure the education process. Early childhood and its inclusion in the educational processes In general, it may be established in the government policies in the region that a higher priority is given to the attention and education of early childhood, unlike past situations when the subject was clearly less important than other EFA objectives. It must be said that countries show big differences as to the offer in early education: they are children from the most disadvantaged families and from families living in rural areas, as well as children excluded for different causes, who have less possibilities to access education, when in fact they are the ones who should most benefit from education programmes. Early childhood education receives in this context a particular attention in policies, characterised by a comprehensive idea of education. (Lpez, 2007). In this sense, it involves not only the formal educational system (particularly in initial education), but also it is a challenge exceeding the educational policy because it calls for a coordination with the health sector, family attention, community development, etc. It is perhaps the ultimate example where no equity policy may be guaranteed without comprehensive, joint and coordinated actions from different government sectors. Particularly, with respect to the education system, by extending the offer to the initial education in some cases, and the compulsory attendance in others, the importance assigned to the subject may be seen. Extending the access to education and improving upper secondary school graduation with relevant learning When analysing the pattern of education expansion at the secondary level, especially during the 1990s, it is possible to assert that, on the one hand, it has been registered in a short period 10

and, as a result, education systems have not always been ready to adequately satisfy this demand. On the one hand there is a tendency in the region to universalise secondary education and, in some cases, to make it compulsory (Argentina and Chile). On the other hand, following the behaviour of education rates (SITEAL, 2006 and 2007), it may be observed during the first years of this decade that they are not only growing, but they are adopting negative values, which allows setting the grounds of a hypothesis related to the limits for the expansion of upper secondary education levels. Obviously, this hypothesis may be explained partly because of factors external to the education systems, but under no ground it may be dismissed the incidence of the conditions typical of the existing offer to educate youngsters coming from very heterogeneous sectors, both in socioeconomic and cultural terms. Youth cultures at higher education are a sign of a particular vital stage when attending this level of education and are a part of an age group bearing peculiar characteristics, which are different from those of past decades. This is one of the new current subjects at educational institutions, previously referred to. According to the above, it may be consequently anticipated that the next steps to expand higher education (especially higher secondary education) will call for the most significant efforts not only regarding the offer expansion (infrastructure, learning equipment, teacher training, etc.) but also as far as fitting strategies and learning models are concerned. Secondary education will have to be innovated both in its organizational structure and in its learning strategies and procedures to ensure the development of knowledge and attitudes that qualify for a job and for the active citizenship. Therefore, in this context, the learning question acquires a fundamental strategic importance and the development of innovating proposals based on past experiences will result in a key factor to provide new responses to the traditional secondary education. Youngsters and adult education Traditionally, adult education was limited first to ensure literacy purposes which allowed people who have not had the opportunity to receive a basic education to access fundamental knowledge such as the command of a written language and mathematical literacy. For this purpose, specific offers have been organised to be responsible for the initial literacy and then for basic and primary education. Insofar as the educational offer expanded during the last decades, so was equally strengthened that of the secondary education to allow a continued education among adults who were finishing primary school or have abandoned secondary school and could thus be back to the formal educational system. Notwithstanding the above (which in turn is characterised by significant differences among the countries of the region, associated with important distances between adults in their different age groups and their education situation), there are strong evidences that secondary education among adults is increasingly including youngsters who accessed secondary education but were unable to stay and, least of all, graduate. This tendency is confirmed when analysing data of 20-25 year olds and the percentage of youngsters lacking a complete secondary education is a proof of this (SITEAL, 2007). Therefore, it is expected that in further years the demand of this type of education offer is considerably increased, so that an important part of the population may access knowledge and certification of secondary studies. This question raises an important challenge for the educational agendas of the countries of the 11

region: to design programmes and offers that consider the new sides of this problem in the youngsters and adults offer. Most of the subjects mentioned in this item are a part of the National Educational Plans of the respective Ministries of Latin American countries3 and are also presented in the new national laws passed since the year 2000 until today (Lpez, 2007). Both the regulations and the plans, as well as those papers and reports prepared in line with international agreements and commitments, such as Education for All, develop the subjects analysed herein, thus showing that they are current issues in the political agenda of the countries of the region. Facing these new education scenarios in the region, it is important that planning may in turn re-update traditional tools typical of it and create new strategies to face them, bearing in mind that, even policies that used to be successful in the past do not necessarily fit in with the current challenges. This outline, appropriate to think the place and role of planning in the ministries, also invites IIEP, as a UNESCO institute specialized in the subject, to promote and develop research and collaborate in designing new educational policy strategies.

The official papers of Ministries of Education have been consulted in the Planipolis Portal of IIEP/UNESCO at: http://planipolis.iiep.unesco.org/basic_search.php

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Bibliography Aguerrondo, I., Racionalidades subyacentes en los modelos de planificacin (educativa) (Rationalities underlying (educational) planning models), Buenos Aires, a series of papers of IIPE/UNESCO Buenos Aires, 2007. In www.iipe-buenosaires.org.ar Aguilar Villanueva, L. (ed.), Problemas pblicos y agenda de gobierno (Public problems and government agenda), Mexico, Miguel ngel Porra Editorial Group, 2000. Caillods, F., La planificacin de la educacin en el ao 2000 (Educational planning in the year 2000), in IIEP Contributions N 4, Paris, IIPE/UNESCO, 1991. Caillods, F., Gttelmann-Duret, G. & Lewin, K., Science education and development: planning and policy issues at secondary level, Paris, IIPE/UNESCO Pergamon, 1997. Caillods, F., The changing role of the state. New competencies for planners, in IIEP Newsletter // Carta Informativa del IIPE, April-June 2003. Caillods, F. y Jacinto, C. (coord.), Mejorar la equidad en la educacin bsica. Lecciones de programas recientes en Amrica Latina (Improving equity in basic education. Lessons of recent programmes in Latin America), Paris, IIPE/UNESCO, 2006. Carnoy, M., Las reformas educativas en la dcada de 1990. Un estudio comparado de Argentina, Chile y Uruguay (Educational reforms in the 1990s. A compared study of Argentina, Chile and Uruguay), Scope and results of educational reforms in Argentina, Chile and Uruguay Project, developed by the Interamerican Development Bank, Ministries of Education of Argentina, Chile and Uruguay and the Advisory Group from Stanford University, Buenos Aires, Akian Grfica Publishing Co., 2004. Hargreaves, A., Profesorado, cultura y postmodernidad (The teaching profession, culture and post modernity), Madrid, Morata, 1996. Latap Sarre, P. La SEP por dentro. Las polticas de la Secretara de Educacin Pblica comentadas por cuatro de sus secretarios (1992-2004), (The SEP from the inside. The Secretariat of Public Education policies discussed by their secretaries (19922004), Mexico, Fondo de Cultura Econmica, 2004. Lpez, N., Las nuevas leyes de educacin en Amrica Latina. Una lectura a la luz del panorama social y educativo de la regin, (The new education laws in Latin America. An interpretation in the light of the social and educational scene of the region) Buenos Aires, CLADE IIPE/UNESCO Buenos Aires, 2007. Matus, C., Planificacin y gobierno, (Planning and government) in CEPAL Review, N 31, April 1987. Matus, C., Estrategia y plan, (Strategy and plan), Mexico, Siglo XXI, 1998, 11th. edition. Matus, C., Los tres cinturones del gobierno, (The three belts of government) 2007, San Justo, UNLM-CIGOB-ALTADIR, 2007. 13

Morduchowicz, A. y Duro, L., La inversin educativa en Amrica Latina y el Caribe. Las demandas de financiamiento y asignacin de recursos, (Educational Investment in Latin America and the Caribbean. Demands for financing and allocation of resources) Buenos Aires, a series of papers of IIPE/UNESCO Buenos Aires, 2007. In www.iipe-buenosaires.org.ar OREALC/UNESCO, La conclusin universal de la educacin primaria en Amrica Latina: estamos realmente tan cerca?, (The universal conclusion of primary education in Latin America, are we really so close?) Santiago de Chile, OREALC/UNESCO, 2004. OREALC/UNESCO, Educacin de Calidad para Todos: Un Asunto de Derechos Humanos, (Quality Education for All. A question of Human Rights) Santiago de Chile, discussion paper in the framework of the II Intergovernmental Meeting of the Regional Project on Education for Latin America and the Caribbean, EPT/PRELAC, 2007. PREAL, Cunto duran los ministros de educacin en Amrica Latina?, en Formas y reformas de la educacin. Serie Polticas, (How long do ministries of education are in office in Latin America?, in Forms and reforms of education. Policy series. Year 4, N12, July 2002, in http://www.preal.org Rittel, H. y Webber, M., Dilemas de una teora general de planeacin, (Dilemas of a general theory on planning) in Aguilar Villanueva, L. (ed.), Problemas pblicos y agenda de gobierno, (Public problems and a government agenda) Mexico, Miguel ngel Porra Editorial Group, 2000. SITEAL, Informe de tendencias sociales y educativas 2006, (Social and Educational Trends 2006 Report), Buenos Aires, IIPE/UNESCO Buenos Aires- Organizacin de Estados Iberoamericanos, 2006. SITEAL, Informe de tendencias sociales y educativas 2007, (Social and Educational Trends 2007 Report), Buenos Aires, IIPE/UNESCO Buenos Aires- Organizacin de Estados Iberoamericanos, 2007. Tedesco, J. C. y Tenti Fanfani, E., La reforma educativa en la Argentina. Semejanzas y particularidades, (Educational Reform in Argentina: Similarities and Peculiarities) in Carnoy, 2004. Tedesco, J. C., Son posibles las polticas de subjetividad?, (Are subjectivity policies possible?) in Tenti Fanfani, 2008. Tenti Fanfani, E., Educacin media para todos. Los desafos de la democratizacin del acceso, (Secondary Education for All. The challenges of the democratisation of access to knowledge) Buenos Aires, IIPE/UNESCO Buenos Aires, Fundacin OSDE, Altamira, 2003. Tenti Fanfani, E. (comp.), Nuevos temas en la agenda de poltica educativa, (New issues in the education policy agenda) Buenos Aires, IIPE-UNESCO Buenos Aires Siglo XXI, 2008. 14

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Annex I Official Websites checked out of Latin American Ministries of Education

Countries Argentina Bolivia Brazil Chile Colombia Costa Rica Cuba Dominican Republic Ecuador El Salvador Guatemala Honduras Mexico Nicaragua Panama Paraguay Peru Uruguay Venezuela http://www.me.gov.ar http://www2.minedu.gov.bo/inicio.html http://portal.mec.gov.br/ http://www.mineduc.cl/ http://www.mineducacion.gov.co/ http://www.mep.go.cr/ http://www.rimed.cu/ http://www.see.gov.do/ http://www.educacion.gov.ec/ http://www.mined.gob.sv/ http://www.mineduc.gob.gt/ http://www.se.gob.hn/ http://www.sep.gob.mx/ http://www.mined.gob.ni/ http://www.meduca.gob.pa/ http://www.mec.gov.py/ http://www.minedu.gob.pe/ http://www.anep.edu.uy http://www.portaleducativo.edu.ve/ Official Websites N/A N/A http://portal.mec.gov.br/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=62&Itemid=191 http://600.mineduc.cl/informacion/info_dire/dire_auto.php http://www.mineducacion.gov.co/1621/article-151216.html http://www.mep.go.cr/acerca_del_mep/organizacion.html N/A http://www.see.gov.do/sitesee/sobrelainstitucion/Estructura%20Organizativa.htm http://www.educacion.gov.ec/institucion/organigrama.php?sec=1&subCat=1&subSec=5 http://www.mined.gob.sv/descarga/Organigrama-MINED-2008.pdf http://www.mineduc.gob.gt/ddes/index.htm http://www.se.gob.hn/index.php?a=Webpage&url=estructura http://www.sep.gob.mx/wb/sep1/sep1_Organigrama_SEP2 http://www.mined.gob.ni/ORGANIGRAM/ORGANIGRAMA%2008.pdf http://www.meduca.gob.pa/ (section: organizational structure) http://www.mec.gov.py/index.php?id=organigrama http://www.minedu.gob.pe/institucional/xtras/ROF_OrganigramaMED2006.pdf http://www.anep.edu.uy/sitio/anep.php?identificador=25 N/A Link to organization charts

N/A: Not available in the site

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