Despite high enrollment rates in Latin America, not all children finish school or receive quality education. In Ecuador, one in three children do not complete primary school, nine out of 10 children in rural areas do not go on to secondary school and two out of 10 schools have neither electricity nor clean water. There is still much work to be done.

The inequality of the region is also visible in education. Most indigenous people live in geographically remote areas, such as the Andean mountain range. Children in these remote regions are often too far from school buildings to attend classes. Even if there is a school nearby, it is often in poor condition and is not a suitable environment in which to learn.

Fact File

• In Nicaragua, 20 percent of children are not enrolled in primary school and 59 percent will never enroll in secondary school.
• Across Latin America and the Caribbean, there are 5.7 million child laborers.
• In Ecuador, there are 600,000 working children in rural areas alone.

Other factors discouraging attendance include child labor and the fact that many children need to stay at home in order to help care for younger siblings, as their fathers have gone off to work in the cities. This burden falls especially hard on girls, who will often care for their younger siblings in addition to working.

Good News

Latin America has taken big steps toward universal primary education. All Latin American countries have a primary school enrollment rate of 80 percent or higher.