Uruguay recorded little impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on educational outcomes, with lower learning losses than other countries, although inequalities persist, authorities said on Tuesday as they presented a report on the level of education in the country in 2021-2022.
“Uruguay has mastered the challenge of the pandemic very well. This does not mean that no costs were incurred (…). But compared to other countries, we were able to cushion the blow significantly,” the Minister of Education and Culture told reporters: Pablo da Silveira.
According to the report, this could be due to shorter closure times of educational centers than in other countries, as well as the existence of a “virtually universal and immediate” access plan to electronic devices and digital platforms that enabled distance learning.
Although there are no “relevant changes in achievement” compared to previous editions, the report highlights that the educational gap by socioeconomic level remains constant, citing as an example differences in both reading and mathematics between young people from a very favorable and a very unfavorable background Context.
“The pandemic has punished the most vulnerable the most. Those who have regressed the most in terms of learning and assistance are the weakest economically and culturally,” Da Silveira said of the “challenges ahead.”
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The minister also highlighted two pieces of “good news”.
In Uruguay, the proportion of young people aged 21 to 23 with completed secondary education increased to 50.9% in 2022, compared to 43.3% in 2019, exceeding the 50% mark for the first time.
And there was a “remarkable improvement” in coverage rates by age, with a record proportion of children and young people enrolled in an education centre.
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The report also points to an increase in acts of violence and feelings of insecurity in educational centers in 2022 compared to 2018, as well as a lower sense of belonging among students, especially in secondary education institutions.
In Uruguay, a country with 3.4 million inhabitants, schooling has been compulsory since 2008 from the age of four until completion of upper secondary school.
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