Source:
CLADE
Fri May 30 2008
The Latin American Campaign for the Right to Education (CLADE) has expressed great concern over the loans the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) has granted to Latin American States. CLADE expresses concern on several levels. The lack of priority to education (which is a human right) has led to it not being prioritised and funded in the domestic budget. CLADE appeals to the different social sectors to openly face this challenge in their countries, making explicit the need to review the development model that takes away priority and resources from education.
The Latin American Campaign for the Right to Education (CLADE) expresses, through this public statement, its concern regarding loans taken out by Latin American States with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), being the last with Argentina. In the latter country, a total of 13 loans for education were approved with the IDB since 1962, the last approved on March 11 2008, in the total amount of US$ 630,000,000 (AR-L 1038). The previous loan from IDB for Argentina had been approved on September 12 2001, with agreement date on November 20 2003, for a total amount of US$ 600,000,000, and is still being implemented (AR 0176).
The loan signed in 2003 with Argentina (Education System Improvement Program – PROMISE) had as its main financing lines, grants in order to encourage the permanence and graduation of secondary education students and expansion of the school infrastructure. The 2008 loan (Education Equity Improvement Policy Support and Program) intends to finance the National Program of Student Grants (PNBE) for 700 thousand secondary education students; texts to the schools that include beneficiaries of the PNBE; and 2 thousand Youth Activities Centers (YAC). The IDB web page additionally states that they are negotiating another loan between the IDB and Argentina, entitled
Extended School Hours Program for the Province of Rio Negro (AR 1043).
In total, 19 loans from IDB are undergoing implementation stage in the region, with Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Dominican Republic and Uruguay. It is known also that 3 are in the preparation stage, the already mentioned with Argentina, a second one with Chile (Early Childhood Education Program CH-L1022), and a third one with Costa Rica (Secondary Education and Work Ties: CR 0147).
CLADE's concern in relation to the new loans is related to what they represent for the States that take out loan: the non prioritization of education thus contradicting the understanding of education as a right. The prioritization of education would mean the destination of State resources to the sector, assuring priority to such inversion of the national budgets.
The financing of education based on loans, in the long term, causes States that adopt said strategy to destine their internal production to pay the debt that grows from interest, while education remains increasingly under financed, considering that the money loaned runs out throughout time and the money generated from production must be designated, for a longer period of time, to pay the interest generated from the loan.
Indebtedness destined to public services, such as education, creates a depraved situation, whereby in the future, those services will be threatened, since the loans have a limited time span and the State, by using its resources to pay its debts, ends up taking away the resources from public services. In this process, the public system becomes weaker, and the road is open to privatization.
CLADE is aware that the struggle for resources assigned to education, that allow all the necessary dimensions for the right to quality education to be financed, is a struggle related to the development model implemented by the States, and that many times involves the negotiation of priorities with congress and with the Minister of Economy and Finance. In this sense, CLADE appeals the different social sectors to openly face this challenge in their countries, making explicit and debating the need to review the development model that takes away priority and resources from education.
Finally, CLADE encourages citizens to closely monitor the loans currently being implemented in the different Latin American countries, so they can follow the terms of each agreement and the impacts on public policies as well as in schools. Special attention is required for the three loans undergoing the negotiation stage (Argentina, Chile and Costa Rica), where there is still a chance to revert the process.
The documents for each loan are available at
CLADE website.
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