WB, IDB Invest in Digitalization in Latam and Caribbean Schools

“The situation in the region is worrying (…) in Latin America and the Caribbean, 66% of our primary schools and 44% of secondary schools lack internet access.”

The World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) announced this Monday that they will invest another 400 million dollars in the next two years so that students have access to the internet in schools in Latin America and the Caribbean.

The two institutions will develop guidelines and platforms to speed up the process of connecting schools and move towards universalization, equipment and device purchasing, and teachers’ training to improve learning.

Its objective is that over 3.5 million students, more than 350,000 teachers, and 12,000 schools will Latin Americal be beneficiaries in 16 countries.

The situation in the region is worrying, recalled IDB Vice President of Sectors and Knowledge Ana María Ibáñez during an event at the IDB headquarters in Washington, D.C.

IDB Vice President for Sectors and Knowledge Ana María Ibáñez and World Bank Director of Human Development for Latin America and the Caribbean Jaime Saavedra explained during an informal discussion at IDB headquarters in Washington, DC, that this collaboration will go beyond operations and include the co-creation of new knowledge and public goods.

“In Latin America and the Caribbean, 66% of our primary schools and 44% of secondary schools lack internet access,” Ibañez stated.

Access to computers in homes is also very unequal depending on income. “80% of 15-year-olds in high-income households have computers” and only 20% in “low-income” ones, she said.

For his part, Jaime Saavedra, director of Human Development for Latin America and the Caribbean at the World Bank, said that “the essential factor to improve learning is effective teachers.”