(Spanish) Educational Challenges in Panama

Desafíos educativos en Panamá

Escrito por Francisca Rosales

Traducido por Gloria Isabel Pazos Salinas

Panamá es un país de América Central con una población aproximada de 4,2 millones de personas en 2020 (Puertas et al. 2023). Panamá tiene un Índice de Desarrollo Humano de 0,815 debido a la desigualdad socioeconómica generalizada, especialmente entre la población indígena del país (ibíd.).

El sistema educativo panameño se divide en diferentes etapas: preescolar; escuela primaria; escuela pre-secundaria y escuela secundaria. La educación es gratuita hasta la educación media (The Oxford Business Group 2023). A pesar reciente progreso en el acceso de los niños a la educación, el sistema educativo panameño aún se enfrenta a graves desafíos, especialmente debido a que la calidad de la educación del país sigue estando rezagada (The Oxford Business Group 2023; UNICEF 2021). Sigue habiendo grandes disparidades en las tasas de abandono escolar entre las zonas rurales y urbanas, y el número y la cualificación profesional de los profesores siguen siendo insatisfactorios (The Oxford Business Group 2023). El presupuesto estatal para educación sigue siendo decepcionante (Herrera et al. 2018). En 2020, el gobierno panameño solo invirtió el 3,9% de su PIB en educación (Trading Economics 2023). Actualmente el 17,2% de los niños entre 15 y 24 años no están matriculados en educación o empleo, lo que implica que muchos adolescentes carecen de acceso a la educación y a las habilidades necesarias para encontrar un empleo (Unicef 2020).

Este reporte destaca los retos educativos a los que se enfrenta Panamá en la actualidad; como lo es la falta de educación de calidad e infraestructura, y la desigualdad en el acceso a la educación que afecta especialmente a comunidades rurales e indígenas. El reporte concluye con recomendaciones para mejorar el sistema educativo panameño.

Escuela Primaria en Boquete, Panamá. Fotografía de Fran Hogan on Wikimedia Commons.

Calidad de la educación e infraestructura

La calidad de la educación en Panamá sigue rezagada (UNESCO 2020). No hay suficientes servicios en las escuelas para garantizar educación de calidad para los estudiantes, especialmente en comunidades rurales e indígenas (UNICEF 2021). A modo de ejemplo, aproximadamente el 30 porciento de los niños no tienen acceso a educación preescolar (UNICEF 2021). Asimismo, la infraestructura educativa se está deteriorando debido a un mantenimiento deficiente (Herrera et al. 2018). La falta de capacidad para acomodar estudiantes ha llevado a introducir jornadas de dos turnos para optimizar la infraestructura escolar (The Oxford Business Group 2023). Esta estrategia implica que un turno de estudiantes asiste a la escuela durante la mañana, mientras que otro turno asiste a la escuela por la tarde. Sin embargo, esto ha obstaculizado el desarrollo de habilidades básicas en los estudiantes. La infraestructura física de las escuelas en áreas rurales es inferior a la de las escuelas urbanas (Unesco 2020). Las escuelas rurales enfrentan grandes retos de infraestructura: hay una falta de infraestructura para dar cabida a la demanda escolar local; esto provoca que los niños abandonen la escuela o los obliga a caminar largas distancias para acceder a sus escuelas. Además, comparado con las escuelas en centros urbanos, escuelas en áreas rurales con frecuencia carecen de los materiales de aprendizaje necesarios, como libros de texto y cuadernos (Unesco 2020).

Además, el estilo educativo sigue siendo anticuado, ya que el plan de estudios sigue basándose en la memorización de conceptos en lugar de desarrollar competencias clave y desarrollar habilidades importantes para la futura empleabilidad de los estudiantes (UNICEF 2021). La falta de aplicación de un plan de estudios bilingüe y, por lo tanto, la falta de proficiencia en inglés ha afectado negativamente la preparación de los estudiantes para el mercado laboral, especialmente en el sector de turismo. Como respuesta, el gobierno ha implementado un programa bilingüe en 2015, para mejorar la competencia en inglés de los profesores de educación básica y secundaria (The Oxford Business Group 2023). Por otra parte, las escuelas carecen de un enfoque claro para la enseñanza en las escuelas en las comunidades indígenas, lo que compromete la calidad de la educación para los estudiantes con origen indígena. De hecho, muchos profesores que enseñan en comunidades indígenas siguen prácticas educativas no inclusivas (Unesco 2020). Por ejemplo, los maestros no indígenas a menudo no permiten que los estudiantes hablen en lenguas indígenas entre ellos, creando tensiones en el ambiente del aula y el actual plan de estudios bilingüe no incluye las lenguas indígenas (Unesco 2020).

Desigualdades en el acceso a la educación

De acuerdo con la UNICEF, 3 de cada 10 niños son afectados por la pobreza multidimensional en Panamá (UNICEF 2022). Los niños viviendo en pobreza y los niños indígenas carecen de acceso a servicios de calidad (UNICEF 2022). A pesar de que la educación preescolar es obligatoria, aproximadamente el 40 porciento de los niños de edades entre 4 y 5 años no asisten a la escuela preescolar (UNICEF 2020). Garantizar el acceso de los niños a la educación preescolar es esencial, ya que el nivel de lenguaje oral en el jardín de infancia puede impactar en gran medida el resultado de aprendizaje del niño durante la escuela primaria en lectura y escritura, así como en matemáticas (Puertas et al. 2023). El sistema educativo tampoco llega a todos los adolescentes en la misma medida: sólo 7 de cada 10 niños de edades entre 12 y 14 años estaban matriculados en la escuela secundaria antes de la pandemia Covid-19, mientras que sólo 5 de cada 10 adolescentes de entre 15 y 17 años estaban matriculados en preparatoria (UNICEF 202). En consecuencia, solo el 35 porciento de los estudiantes alcanzaron los niveles mínimos de competencia en alfabetización según los Objetivos de Desarrollo Sustentable (UNICEF 2020). Además, el 19 porciento de los niños y el 16 porciento de las niñas en las escuelas pre-secundarias tienen una edad superior a la normal; este hecho señala que un aprendizaje insatisfactorio conduce al abandono escolar, limitando la posibilidad de que los jóvenes adquieran las habilidades necesarias para su futura empleabilidad (UNICEF 2020).

La desigualdad afecta en gran medida a los niños de origen indígena, ya que los niños indígenas muestran un menor rendimiento en las tasas de alfabetización y aritmética. La población indígena en Panamá vive mayormente en áreas rurales, donde la oferta de escuelas es sustancialmente menor en comparación con las zonas urbanas (Unesco 2020). A modo de ejemplo, las adolescentes de comunidades indígenas tienen más posibilidades de ser excluidas del acceso a la educación y de completar la educación secundaria y 1 de cada 10 niños de áreas rurales tiene más probabilidades de no estar matriculado en la escuela (UNICEF 2021; Unesco 2020). La taza de alfabetización de las mujeres de origen indígena de entre 15 y 24 años es del 84 porciento, lo cual es inferior a la media nacional (97 porciento) (Unesco 2020). Asimismo, las escuelas en comunidades indígenas tienen una infraestructura más deficiente y menor rendimiento escolar. La violencia, incluido en abandono o negligencia, actualmente afecta al 44.5 porciento de los niños, y las niñas indígenas muestran una mayor vulnerabilidad a la violencia (UNICEF 2020). Los niños con discapacidad también enfrentan exclusión en el acceso a la educación, ya que 1 de cada 4 niños con discapacidad no asiste a la escuela (UNICEF 2021).

El rendimiento en lectura de los estudiantes disminuyó mucho después de la pandemia COVID, especialmente debido a la desigualdad (Puertas et al. 2023). A finales de 2020, solo el 51 porciento de los niños en escuelas primarias y el 42 porciento de los estudiantes de preparatoria podía leer de forma competente (Puerta et al. 2023). Una gran porción de la población no tiene acceso a internet desde casa ni electricidad. De hecho, solo el 40 porciento de los hogares con niños en escuelas públicas tienen acceso a internet (Puertas et al. 2023). Durante el aislamiento por COVID, los niños de hogares con ingresos mayores podían utilizar plataformas en línea, como Microsoft Teams, para interactuar con sus maestros; sin embargo, estudiantes de ingresos menores usualmente sólo disponían de WhatsApp como medio de comunicación con los maestros. En consecuencia, miles de estudiantes estuvieron en riesgo de abandonar la escuela durante este periodo (UNICEF 2022).

Fotografía por Katie Chen en Unsplash.

 

Conclusión y Recomendaciones

Este reporte destaca que los principales retos educativos en Panamá radican en la falta de una infraestructura apropiada que asegure a los estudiantes el acceso a una educación de calidad y en la desigualdad que impide a los estudiantes alcanzar resultados educativos satisfactorios. La educación es un mecanismo esencial para el desarrollo. Por lo tanto, el gobierno de Panamá debe comprometerse a expandir el actual presupuesto para la educación para mejorar la infraestructura física y calidad de las escuelas, con el fin de garantizar que la población pueda acceder a los conocimientos necesarios y aumentar sus capacidades. También, es esencial seguir invirtiendo en la capacitación de los maestros para mejorar la calidad en la enseñanza y desarrollar un plan de estudios que permita a los estudiantes el desarrollo de habilidades esenciales para el mercado laboral.

El gobierno también debería priorizar a los niños de las comunidades indígenas para cerrar la brecha actual en el acceso desigual a la educación. El gobierno debería invertir más en escuelas de comunidades indígenas para mejorar los resultados de aprendizaje en lectura y matemáticas entre estudiantes de educación primaria y preparatoria. Esto sólo es posible a través de la implementación de políticas inclusivas que toman en consideración las necesidades educativas de los estudiantes y que reconocen la exclusión desproporcional al acceso a educación de calidad de niños de origen indígena. Garantizar que los estudiantes de origen indígena tengan acceso a una educación de calidad es esencial para evitar que abandonen la escuela y queden aún más marginados de la sociedad.

 

Referencias

Cubilla-Bonnetier, D., Grajales-Barrios, M., Ortega-Espinosa, A., Puertas, L. and De León Sautú, N. (2023). “Unequal literacy development and access to online education in public versus private Panamanian schools during COVID-19 pandemic”. In Frontiers in Education (Vol. 8, p. 989872). Frontiers.

Herrera M, L.C., Torres-Lista, V. and Montenegro, M. (2018). Analysis of the State Budget for Education of the Republic of Panama from 1990 to 2017. International Education Studies, 11(7), pp.71-82.

Oxford Business Group. (2023). “Panama makes progress towards sustainable education growth”. https://oxfordbusinessgroup.com/reports/panama/2015report/economy/learning-curve-progress-is-being-made-towards-sustainable-growthvia-a-rising-budget-and-a-push-to-raise-post-secondary-

offerings#:~:text=The%20Panamanian%20education%20system%20is,five%2Dyear% 2Dold%20children

Trading Economics. (2023). “Panama – Public Spending on Education”. https://tradingeconomics.com/panama/public-spending-on-education-total-percentof-gdp-wb-

data.html#:~:text=Government%20expenditure%20on%20education%2C%20total,co mpiled%20from%20officially%20recognized%20sources

Unesco. (2020). “Rurality and education in Panama”.

https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000374672

UNICEF. (2021). “All children learn in Palama”. https://www.unicef.org/lac/en/allchildren-learn-panama

UNICEF. (2022). “Country annual report 2022: Panama”.

https://www.unicef.org/media/136316/file/Panama-2022-COAR.pdf

UNICEF. (2020). “Country Programme document”.

https://www.unicef.org/executiveboard/media/3176/file/2021-PL9-Panama_CPD-ENODS.pdf

 

 

UNIVERSAL PERIODIC REVIEW OF PANAMA

Broken Chalk has drafted the following report as a stakeholder contribution to the fourth cycle of the Universal Periodic Review UPR for the Republic of Panama. As Broken Chalk’s focus is on combating human rights violations within the educational sphere, the contents of this report and the following recommendations will primarily focus on the right to education.

Panama’s education system includes 6 years of compulsory primary education (Education Primaria) for children aged 6 to 12. Secondary education is divided into two stages. The lower secondary stage is 3 years of compulsory middle education (Educación Primaria) from ages 12 to 15. After completing mandatory education, students aged 15 to 18 can proceed to upper secondary education, known as Educación Media. This stage provides two primary pathways: the Academic Track, which emphasises general education subjects to prepare students for higher education, and the Technical/Vocational Track, which offers specialised training in various trades and professions. i

The enrollment rate in Panama’s education system has improved significantly in recent years, particularly over the last decade, starting at the primary level. According to the data from the World Bank, the net enrolment rate for primary education means that 95% ii（2023） of Children in the 6-12 age group are enrolled in school. Middle education involves a gross rate of 83% （2021）iii of students within the age bracket of 13 to 15 years.

Despite all those regarding the quality of education, according to the PISA study (2023), 6 out of 10 15-year-old students do not understand what they read. One hundred seventeen thousand seven hundred ninety-nine children and adolescents between the ages of 4 and 17 do not attend any educational center. Thirty percent of them drop out of school because they do not have an academic offer nearby (UNICEF Panama, 2023). iv Poverty and inequality are the primary challenges impacting access to and quality of education in Panama. Despite being a high Human Development Index country, Panama experiences significant disparities, particularly in education. The gaps are most pronounced in rural areas and among Indigenous communities, where students often face the necessity of working on the land.

Efforts have been made to close the gap. This year, 7% of the government’s expenditure on education, valued at $ 5.4 million, is allocated to the Minister of Education (MEDUCA), representing a decline of 11.9% from last year, according to the World Bankv. Despite the challenge posed by the National Plan for the Elimination of School Ranches (Plan Nacional de Eliminación de Ranchos Escolares), there are more than 400 aulas ranchos still to be eradicated.vi It is argued that it is impossible to eliminate due to the shortage of funds. Additionally, investment in infrastructure is much needed to provide clean water and facilities for students.

The government, in collaboration with multilateral agencies vii, is working together to promote and enhance the nation’s educational quality to a high level. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, governments have accelerated the integration of technology tools into the educational system. This includes the development of online learning platforms and the

 

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50th_Session_UN-UPR_Panama
References

i  

ii https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SE.PRM.ENRR?locations=PA 

iii Ibid. 

iv https://www.unicef.org/panama/media/9646/file/Informe%20anual%20de%20UNICEF%20en%20Panamá%202023.pdf  

v https://data.worldbank.org/country/panama 

vi https://www.ecotvpanama.com/eco-news/programas/meduca-mantiene-mas-400-escuelas-rancho-erradicar-n5853548 

vii https://www.caf.com/en/currently/news/2024/01/multilateral-organizations-are-calling-for-improvements-in-education-in-panama/ 

 

Featured Photo by Luis Gonzalez on Unsplash

Educational challenges in Panama

Written by Francisca Rosales

Panama is a country in Central America with a population of approximately 4.2 million people in 2020 (Puertas et al. 2023). Panama has a Human Development Index of 0.815 due to widespread socioeconomic inequality, especially among the country’s indigenous population (ibid.).

The Panamanian education system is divided into different stages: preschool; primary school; pre-secondary school and secondary school. Education is free until middle school (The Oxford Business Group 2023). Despite recent progress in children’s access to education, Panama’s educational system is still facing grave challenges, especially as the quality of the country’s education continues to lag (The Oxford Business Group 2023; UNICEF 2021). There are still great disparities in dropout rates between rural and urban areas, and the number and professional qualification of teachers remains unsatisfactory (The Oxford Business Group 2023). The state budget for education continues to be disappointing (Herrera et al. 2018). In 2020, the Panamanian government only invested 3.9 percent of its GDP in education (Trading Economics 2023). Currently 17.2% of children aged between 15 and 24 are not enrolled in education or employment, entailing that many adolescents lack access to education and to the necessary skills to find an employment (Unicef 2020).

This report highlights educational challenges that Panama is facing at the moment; namely, the lack of quality education and infrastructure, and inequalities in access to education that affect especially rural and indigenous communities. The report concludes with recommendations to improve the Panamanian educational system.

Elementary school in Boquete, Panama. Photo by Fran Hogan on Wikimedia Commons.

Quality of Education & Infrastructure

The quality of education in Panama continues to fall behind (UNESCO 2020). There are not sufficient services at schools to ensure quality education for students, especially in rural and indigenous communities (UNICEF 2021). To illustrate, approximately 30 percent of children do not have access to preschool education (UNICEF 2021). Also, educational infrastructure is deteriorating due to poor maintenance (Herrera et al. 2018). The lack of capacity to accommodate students has led to the introduction of the two-shift school day to optimize school infrastructure (The Oxford Business Group 2023). This strategy entails that one shift of students attends school during the morning, while another shift attends school in the afternoon. However, this has hampered the development of students’ basic skills. The physical infrastructure of schools in rural areas is lower than in urban schools (Unesco 2020). Rural schools face major infrastructure challenges: there is a lack of infrastructure to accommodate the local demand for school; this results in children dropping out of school or forces children to walk for long distances to access their schools. Also, compared to schools in urban centers, schools in rural areas often lack the necessary learning materials, such as textbooks and notebooks (Unesco 2020).

Moreover, the educational style remains old-fashioned, as the curriculum is still based on memorizing concepts rather than developing key competencies and developing skills important for students’ future employability (UNICEF 2021). The lack of enforcement of a bilingual curriculum and, therefore, the lack of proficiency in English has negatively affected students’ preparedness for the labor market, especially in the sector of tourism. As a response, the government implemented a Bilingual Program in 2015, to improve basic and secondary teachers’ proficiency in English (The Oxford Business Group 2023). Furthermore,  schools lack a clear approach to teaching in schools in indigenous communities, which compromises the quality of education for students with an indigenous background. In fact, many teachers teaching in schools in indigenous communities follow non-inclusive educational practices (Unesco 2020). For example, non-indigenous teachers often do not allow students to speak in indigenous languages among themselves, creating tensions in the classroom environment and the current bilingual curriculum fails to include indigenous languages (Unesco 2020). 

Inequalities in Access to Education

According to UNICEF, 3 out of 10 children are affected by multidimensional poverty in Panama (UNICEF 2022). Children living in poverty and children with an indigenous background lack access to quality services (UNICEF 2022). Although preschool education is compulsory, approximately 40 percent of children aged between 4 to 5 years do not attend preschool (UNICEF 2020). Ensuring children’s access to preschool education is essential since the level of oral language kindergarten can have a great impact on a child’s learning outcomes through primary school in reading and writing, as well as mathematics (Puertas et al. 2023). The educational system also does not reach all adolescents to the same extent: only 7 in 10 children aged between 12 and 14 years were enrolled in pre-secondary school before Covid-19, while only 5 in 10 adolescents between 15 and 17 years were enrolled in high school (UNICEF 2020). Consequently, only 35 percent of students reached the minimum proficiency levels for literacy according to the Sustainable Development Goals (UNICEF 2020). Also, 19 percent of boys and 16 percent of girls in pre-secondary schools are overaged; this fact points that unsatisfactory learning leads to school dropout, curtailing the possibility for young adults to acquire the necessary skills for future employability (UNICEF 2020). 

Inequalities greatly affect children with indigenous backgrounds, as indigenous children display lower achievement in literacy and numeracy rates. The indigenous population in Panama mostly lives in rural areas, where the supply of schools is substantially lower, compared to urban areas (Unesco 2020). To illustrate, adolescent girls from indigenous communities are more likely to be excluded from access to education and to complete secondary education and 1 in 10 children from rural areas are more likely to not be enrolled in school (UNICEF 2021; Unesco 2020).  The literacy rate for women from indigenous backgrounds between 15 and 24 years of age is 84 percent, which is lower than the national average (97 percent) (Unesco 2020). Also, schools in indigenous communities have poorer infrastructure and lower school attainment. Violence, including abandonment, or neglect, currently affects 44.5 percent of children, and indigenous girls show higher vulnerability to violence (UNICEF 2020). Children with disabilities also face exclusion in access to education as 1 in 4 children with disabilities does not attend school (UNICEF 2021).

Students’ reading performance greatly decreased after Covid especially due to inequality (Puertas et al. 2023). At the end of 2020, only 51 percent of children in primary schools and 42 percent of high school students could read proficiently (Puerta et al. 2023). A large portion of the population does not have access to internet from home or electricity. In fact, only 40 percent of households with children in public schools have internet access (Puertas et al. 2023). During the Covid lockdow, children from higher-income households could use online platforms, such as Microsoft Teams, to engage with their teachers; however, students in lower-income households often only had WhatsApp as a means of communication with their teachers. Consequently, thousands of students were at risk of dropping out of school during this period (UNICEF 2022).

Photo by Katie Chen on Unsplash.

Conclusion and Recommendations

This report highlights that the major educational challenges in Panama lie in the lack of appropriate infrastructure to ensure that students have access to quality education and social inequality that hinders students from achieving satisfactory educational outcomes. Education is an essential mechanism for development. Thus, the government of Panama must commit to expanding the current budget for education to improve schools’ physical infrastructure and quality to ensure that its population can access the necessary skills and increase its capabilities. Also, it is essential to continue investing in teachers’ capacity building to improve the quality of teaching and develop a curriculum that enables students to develop essential skills for the job market.

The government should also prioritize children from indigenous communities to close the current gap in unequal access to education. The government should invest more in schools in indigenous communities to improve learning outcomes in reading and mathematics among primary school and high school students. This is only possible through the implementation of inclusive policies that take into consideration students’ educational needs and recognize the disproportional exclusion of children with indigenous background from accessing quality education. Ensuring that students with an indigenous background have access to quality education is essential to prevent students from dropping out of school and from being further marginalized from society. 

References

Cubilla-Bonnetier, D., Grajales-Barrios, M., Ortega-Espinosa, A., Puertas, L. and De León Sautú, N. (2023). “Unequal literacy development and access to online education in public versus private Panamanian schools during COVID-19 pandemic”. In Frontiers in Education (Vol. 8, p. 989872). Frontiers.

Herrera M, L.C., Torres-Lista, V. and Montenegro, M. (2018). Analysis of the State Budget for Education of the Republic of Panama from 1990 to 2017. International Education Studies, 11(7), pp.71-82.

Oxford Business Group. (2023). “Panama makes progress towards sustainable education growth”. https://oxfordbusinessgroup.com/reports/panama/2015-report/economy/learning-curve-progress-is-being-made-towards-sustainable-growth-via-a-rising-budget-and-a-push-to-raise-post-secondary-offerings#:~:text=The%20Panamanian%20education%20system%20is,five%2Dyear%2Dold%20children 

Trading Economics. (2023). “Panama – Public Spending on Education”. https://tradingeconomics.com/panama/public-spending-on-education-total-percent-of-gdp-wb-data.html#:~:text=Government%20expenditure%20on%20education%2C%20total,compiled%20from%20officially%20recognized%20sources 

Unesco. (2020). “Rurality and education in Panama”. https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000374672 

UNICEF. (2021). “All children learn in Palama”. https://www.unicef.org/lac/en/all-children-learn-panama 

UNICEF. (2022). “Country annual report 2022: Panama”. https://www.unicef.org/media/136316/file/Panama-2022-COAR.pdf 

UNICEF. (2020). “Country Programme document”. https://www.unicef.org/executiveboard/media/3176/file/2021-PL9-Panama_CPD-EN-ODS.pdf