The World Bank loan will benefit over 220,000 students in priority areas around the country.
A statement from the World Bank reads follows:
The World Bank Board of Executive Directors today approved a new initiative for $25 million that will benefit children in priority areas in Nicaragua, including the Caribbean Coast.
The "Second Draft Education Sector Support (PASS II)", will mainly benefit 219,527 students and 80,000 primary school children who are currently outside the education system, as well as 250,000 people in the priority municipalities.
Out of all the countries on the isthmus, only Panama’s Human Development Index follows the upward trend set by Latin America and the Caribbean.
Since the 1990 publication of the Human Development Index (HDI), the number has shown an upward trend for the vast majority of nations. This overall positive trend has been exceeded by some countries, such as South Korea and China, while others, such as Zimbabwe and Lesotho, have actually moved in a negative direction.
According to the UN Development Program (UNDP) index, within Central America Panama comes first at no. 58 followed by Costa Rica (69), El Salvador (105), Honduras (121), Nicaragua (129) and Guatemala at no. 131.
While Panama's ranking has moved up one spot since the last time the UNDP Human Development Index (HDI) was published, Costa Rica and Honduras have slipped back a place.
At least 10,000 teachers are needed in the country in order to provide better education.
Saturation in the classroom means that a single teacher currently teaches on average between 40 and 70 students, although the General Education Law sets a maximum of 35 students per classroom, and per teacher.
"Next year, the government only intends to hire 600 teachers for primary and secondary education.
Latin America is barely ahead of Africa in quality standards and conditions affecting local businesses.
As a region, Central America, is located in the second half of the list entitled ‘Doing Business 2012’.
Doing Business 2012, a report by the World Bank this year added a new area of analysis, which is the ease of obtaining an electrical connection, along with the traditional items which include: ease of starting a business, management of construction permits, registering property , getting credit, protecting investors, paying taxes, cross border trade, enforcing contracts, and insolvency resolution.
The Global Skills Shortage Survey 2011 by Manpower reveals that employers are finding it increasingly difficulty to fill jobs with qualified personnel.
One in three employers (34%) worldwide said they are having difficulty filling positions due to lack of available talent, an increase of three percentage points compared to 2010.
The global economic downturn may have masked the talent shortage for several years, but the global recovery, despite its slowness, has made the tension created by lack of talented workers more evident, now that organizations who have reduced staff levels are finding that they need more of the right kind of people to make progress and support the company strategy.
Main conclusions regarding the Central American economy between 2008 and 2011.
The State of the Region Report is a tool by Central America for Central America, which analyzes and tracks the major challenges of sustainable human development. In this fourth report, the titles of the main conclusions on the topic Economy are presented:
- Intra-regional migration is concentrated between Nicaragua and Costa Rica
FUNIDES has projected economic growth of 3.5% to 4% for 2011-2013, noting that these are various risks that make the projections err towards the downside.
The executive summary of the second situation report by the Nicaraguan Economic Foundation for Economic and Social Development (FUNIDES) 2011 begins:
1. The economic recovery that began in the second half of 2009 continued (albeit at a slower rate) in the first quarter of 2011, driven both by exports and by investment, consumption and government spending.
In Guatemala an Economic Culture Survey found that nearly 6 in 10 people do not know what interest rate is.
"39% of the population of Guatemala recognizes not to know what interest rate are and almost 20% has a misconception; the bottom line is that nearly 6 out of 10 Guatemalans do not know what interest rate means."
The survey on economic culture was conducted in Guatemala, but similar results would be obtained in other regional countries.
The Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala (USAC, University of San Carlos of Guatemala) was one of the earliest universities to be founded in the Americas. It was decreed a university on January 31, 1676 by royal command of King Charles II of Spain. It had previously been known as the Escuela de Santo Tomás (School of Saint Thomas), founded in 1562 by the priest Francisco Marroquín. The University finally gained international acceptance by Official Decree from Pope Innocent XI, on June 18, 1687.
Organization that operates in Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama
Phone: (502) 6631 8316
Panama is the only Central American country participating in the International Student Assessment (PISA).
The Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) is to measure if students near the end of mandatory education have acquired the knowledge and skills necessary to fully participate in society. PISA highlights those countries which have achieved good performance and at the same time, an equitable distribution of learning opportunities, helping in setting ambitious goals for other countries.
Position in 2010 Rankings: Panama 72 (62 in 2009), El Salvador 86 (80), Guatemala 101 (100), Nicaragua 117 (119), Costa Rica 125 (121), Honduras 131 (128).
With the exception of Nicaragua, which rose two places, the Doing Business 2011 ranking shows that easiness of doing business in the Central American countries has deteriorated, at least in relation to other countries.
In the Global Human Development Index 2010, Panama is ranked 54, Costa Rica 62, El Salvador 90, Honduras 106, Nicaragua and Guatemala 115 and 116 respectively.
The Central American countries, like others in Latin America, continue to improve in most variables measuring human development and the HDI Program published by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP).
The Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI) has signed an agreement with Nicaragua's Thomas More University as part of a program to fund higher education.
"These funds come from the 'Finance for the Majority' program that seeks to encourage intermediary financial institutions to provide study loans," reports Latribuna.hn.
The program aims to cover 100% of the cost of masters and postgraduate studies and is open to all Central American universities. Institutions wishing to participate must first go through CABEI's selection process.